Adapted from an article by Marco Visscher
It's hard to believe, but lactic acid bacteria, fungi and yeasts could help solve the world's environmental and food problems. In the right combination - and without chemical additives - they create bigger harvests and higher profits.
Increasing numbers of tropical countries are reaping the rewards in areas such as agriculture, fishing and cattle-farming.
EM or ‘effective micro-organisms’ is the rather dull name for a technological breakthrough, which has the potential to spectacularly impact the agriculture, horticulture, fishing and cattle-farming industries, not to mention waste processing, natural forest management and water purification.
EM is a mixture of micro-organisms, including lactic acid bacteria, fungi and yeasts. When these organisms are present in the soil, they stimulate productivity and vitality. They purify the water and air present in the soil and excrete nutrients. The result: an excellent environment for plants and animals.
Teruo Higa, a horticulture professor from the University of Ryukyus in Japan, discovered EM, which he claimed significantly increased production levels. Rice fields in Japan produced 50 percent higher yields in the first year. Cucumber cultivators, which normally produce one cucumber per stalk, were able to produce four to five per stalk. The same was true for corn, with reports from some growers of up to eight ears per stalk.
The most successful and remarkable example is cherry tomatoes, with yields increasing fourteen fold from 30 to 300 tomatoes per plant.
EM is now being used in 116 countries: from Nepal to Canada, from China to Brazil, from Kenya to the Netherlands. The method is used most intensively in Thailand, Japan and North Korea, where EM technology has been applied on a broad scale for a myriad of reasons.
The Kyusei Nature Farming Center in Thailand is the place where the first large-scale experiment with EM began.
It is an area in Saraburi covering 70 hectares. Here, self-sufficiency is put into practice. All kinds of crops - including rice, tomatoes, mango, papaya, bananas and aubergine - are cultivated here with the help of EM.
"There is nowhere else in the world where the effects of long-term use of EM are so clearly visible." And Somlaksana Pongdit should know. She has been working in the centre for eight years and is now the director of EMRO, Thailand's EM research centre. "I've seen the fruits and vegetables grown here change. Every year harvest yields increase and so do the profits, especially compared to other fields in the area."
Cost is not an obstacle. In fact, EM costs around half the price of chemicals and chemical fertiliser. "Farmers are used to chemicals," she explains. "They don't easily believe there is a natural alternative; otherwise they would have heard of it, right? They are only convinced when they see how quickly the effects of EM become visible."
There are three types of micro-organisms in the soil: degenerative that are harmful to humans, animals and the environment, regenerative that are beneficial and a whole array of neutral organisms. The neutral variety, which account for 80 to 90 percent of all micro-organisms, tend to take on the characteristics of the dominant type.
Therefore, if the soil contains mainly degenerative micro-organisms, the neutral ones will also slowly become harmful. This is the case when pesticides are used frequently, which disturbs the balance in the microflora. But EM creates an environment in which the regenerative micro-organisms multiply, prompting the neutral ones to do the same.
This is the reason why the long-term use of EM leads to increasingly better results.
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