The Bicol farm School (BFS) has perfected the formula for compost production using locally available materials. Tested for nutrients and studied using actual field trials for rice, vegetables and corn, the BFS compost nurtures the soil, restores its fertility after floods and droughts and enables the farmer to plant for early recovery of lost food and income after climate change induced extreme weather events wreak havoc in their communities. A day of compost making produces a ton !
Farmers suffer from soil erosion specially after storms and floods which occur more frequently due to climate change. Aside from this, decades of chemical use have resulted to acidic and nutrient depleted soil so that more fertilisers are needed to produce better yields during the aftermath of extreme weather events. Each year pummeled by typhoons, more and more farmers give up farming because of this while the cost of commercial fertilizers have become unaffordable for many.
In the 8 year experience of the Bicol farmer school (BFS), an alternative learning hub for subsistence farmers in the Bicol region,Philippines, the use of compost has provided a solution to this.Compost making involves a creative and resourceful process of nutrient recycling by using animal manure (chicken dung), rice hulls, twigs and branches of the local fig bush, other crop residues, banana trunks and kitchen waste. The compost is now being produced small scale for households and small farms
If upscaled and promoted in the region, compost can enable farmers to produce food amid crisis situations like disasters with lesser cost and sustain the fertility of the soil for future farming generations. Combined with compost training are basic principles of Agroecology that will serve to equip the farmer with knowledge and skills for climate resiliency and climate mitigation through nature based practices like the use of traditional seeds, resilient rice varieties and diversified farming .
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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