Eco-logical Farming Handbook
Regenerative agriculture is the best way to grow. The challenge has been how to do it.
By identifying the fundamental principles underpinning regenerative practices used around the world, the message is actually quite simple - 'bring back Nature's free ecological services to your farm'. These are the ecological functions - nutrient cycles, water cycles, solar energy capture, and beneficial connections (functional biodiversity) provided when we get our agro-ecosystems tuned up and running again!
Understanding what you need to regenerate and the fundamental principles of how to do it, you gain the know-how to develop practices that work well for your unique growing conditions and production systems. Established regenerative practices became the source and inspiration for your ideas, rather than recipes to follow.
Bringing back these FREE ecological services to your farm you:
- Reduce your fertiliser, pest control and other input costs
- Boost production in good times and get less set-backs when the weather plays up
- Gain opportunities increase your income streams growing additional products within your production systems
And what’s more, you'll supply vital ecosystem services – biodiversity, carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, and reduced fertiliser, pesticide and sediment runoff. Not because you have been lucky enough to receive a grant or incentive payment (although these are always useful) – because these services are supplied naturally as by-products from repairing the ecological infrastructure on our farms.
Does this sound too good to be true?
With this Handbook, you'll gain the know-how to do get your production systems functioning again using the underlying science - the eco-logic, and practical experiences of leading farmers.
Are you ready to try this easier way to grow?
Wiro Bound Hardcover
Price: AU $58 - including delivery
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Pay with credit card or PayPal.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook is sold by and securely delivered via FastSpring. A publication from Learning from Nature, Hill Top Farm - working with Nature Pty Ltd
ISBN 9780646987149 26/4/2019
Digital Version
Price: AU $34
Sales tax or VAT may apply.
Pay with credit card or PayPal.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook is sold by and securely delivered via FastSpring. A publication from Learning from Nature, Hill Top Farm - working with Nature Pty Ltd
ISBN 9780646987149 26/4/2019
Need more information about the Eco-logical Farming Handbook? Then read on…
Why this eco-logical approach to regenerative agriculture makes sense
Lower production costs
Colin Seis has reduced his production costs by 75% by getting his nutrient cycling system functioning again. He uses 70% less fertiliser on crops and hasn’t fertilised his pasture for over 30 years. Yet his soil tests show increases in major and micro plant nutrient availability.
Drought-proofing
We're improving the water cycle on our farm by combining Holistic Planned Grazing with Silvopasture.
See the benefits in our dry season. Our pasture is more productive, and the legume trees provide extra forage, and bonuses bagged fertilisers can’t supply.
Pest-resistance
Hydroponic growers, Graham and Fiona Grant used to spray synthetic pesticides twice a week.
Instead they have created functional biodiversity. They use trays of 'sacrificial' crops in their growing sheds, and are working towards maintaining populations of beneficial insects by providing suitable food plants and habitat. Organic pest controls are used as a back-up.
Benefit from Nature's FREE ecological services
While a small number of farmers around the world benefit from using traditional practices maintaining functioning agro-ecosystems, the majority of us are not so lucky. Substituting for these free ecological services by cultivating soil, applying synthetic and biological fertilisers, and pest controls has become the norm – virtually everybody does it!
This interventionist approach defines current ‘conventional agriculture’, whether we use ‘chemical’ or ‘organic’ inputs.
When we realise what we can achieve by getting our agro-ecosystems functioning again and understand the principles of how to do it, we break this ‘intervention habit’.
Most agricultural soils, for example, don’t show the customary signs of soil degradation – salinity, erosion and compaction, but are degraded because they no longer function properly. They lack functioning nutrient recycling systems and soil structures promoting plant growth.
Carbon and organic matter levels in the soil are useful measures to track our progress, but we need to get our agro-ecosystems ‘tuned up and running’ for these metrics to improve!
A reliable pathway to follow
Using this ‘eco-logical’ approach to regenerative agriculture, you will address the root causes of your problems, take the path of least resistance, and use your know-how to trial techniques, learn, and share your experiences.
Nature contributes the innovation and technology
Using three billion years of research and development by ‘learning from Nature’, we make the real technological advances in farming by creating agro-ecosystems that are easy to maintain, resilient, and highly productive - using the energy and resources we have available.
We use agri-tech to support the regenerative capacity of our agro-ecosystems, rather than as a substitute for it.
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ISBN 9780646987149
Leave your tractor in the shed. Give the job of making good soil structure to the experts – your soil organisms.
Save money on commercial pest controls with a team of technologically advanced, highly motivated insect and bird pest controllers.
Give soil organisms the job of managing your fertiliser regime.
Sustainably intensify your production by growing more with extra solar panels.
"This beautifully Ecological Farming Handbook book presents really practical ‘hands-on’ information for farmers wishing to improve both the overall productivity and the sustainability of their land.
Dr Seabrook draws on the experiences of farmers around the world and her own at Hill Top Farm in tropical Australia, where she is transforming degraded land into fertile pastures and multi-layered production systems. The effects are dramatic.
She emphasises the need for individual farmers to think about what they want to accomplish, and then use eco-logical principles to achieve it.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook shows us how to work with nature to improve soil fertility, minimise pests and diseases, reduce the impacts of drought and so to maximise production - all this, without reliance on expensive agrichemicals.
This farmer-friendly, wildlife-friendly, and climate-friendly approach is applicable around the globe from resource-poor smallholders to large-scale enterprises."
Prof Roger Leakey, Vice President of International Tree Foundation, former Professor of Agroecology and Sustainable Development at JCU Cairns, and former Director of Research at The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).
"Extraordinary."
Jessica Peace, Organic vegetable producer, UK.
"The great thing about the Eco-logical Farming Handbook - we are on a journey and understand where we want to go."
Martin Lines, UK Chair, Nature Friendly Farming Network.
Frequently asked questions
Will this approach work in my climate?
Farmers from the cold north of Scotland to the hot, sultry tropics and arid landscapes of Africa use this eco-logical approach to regenerative agriculture and agroecology. The ecological principles are the same. Tools, techniques and species differ as growers adapt these practices to their climate.
Does the size of my property matter?
Size doesn't matter. Smallholders, market and community gardeners and farms with large-scale crop operations are improving their soils and reducing crop losses by repairing their ecological infrastructure.
Will it work with what I grow?
There are orchardists, dairy farmers, market gardeners, grain producers, grazers, and even hydroponic growers already getting amazing results. The ecological principles are the same. Farmers choose suitable practices for their production systems.
Will my yields drop?
Farmers often experience higher and more reliable yields. With less impacts from pests and diseases and fewer crop losses during tough times. They also create opportunities to sustainably intensify their production, providing a viable way to feed the world’s growing population, by stacking new enterprises within their production systems.
Superb value
With the Eco-logical Farming Handbook you get much more than a repackaged list of regenerative practices.
You benefit from over 12 years of research using 'Grounded Theory' methodology to clarify and validate the ecological principles supporting farmers to regenerate their farms, and from the translation of these first principles into an easily digestible farmer-friendly format.
What does this mean for you?
The hard work is done! You'll understand the 'eco-logic' and use the principles to competently repair and then maintain the ecological operations in your production systems, choosing the best tools for the job.
An inventory of tools and design templates is provided in the Handbook as source and inspiration for your ideas.
Your production systems will be firing on all cylinders!
Extra Bonuses
1. Links to videos showing what farmers achieve
2. Inventory of tools and design templates
3. 15% off our 'GrowMap' publication
Why I am passionate about getting this Eco-logical Farming Handbook to farmers
Being a farmer, and having worked with farmers for over 30 years promoting sustainable and organic agriculture, it's fantastic to find a way to make farming more profitable while also improving our environment!
When I moved to Hill Top Farm, fourteen years ago, I wanted to find an easier way to grow. I was tired of earning so little for all the hard work I put in!
As an ecologist, looking at how farmers mimic the ways natural ecosystems handle plant nutrition, droughts, pest and disease management, and so on, made sense. However, copying the practices other farmers used wasn't necessarily the best thing to do. I needed to understand why the practices they used worked. Then I could find suitable techniques for my conditions in the dry - wet tropics.
It has been an exciting journey - learning from my farm, the experiences of other growers, scientists and the innovators in regenerative agriculture.
Trialing new techniques is not always smooth sailing! But I see the benefits, and don't spend most my time mowing, mulching, weeding and spreading compost anymore!
It's amazing what we can achieve by learning from Nature!
Reduce fertiliser costs – feeding your plants with a functioning nutrient recycling system
Boost production - growing more photosynthetic panels
Drought and water-proof your farm – with a functioning water cycle
Reduce labour and pest control costs - creating functional biodiversity and other beneficial connections
Create opportunities to sustainably intensify your production
Wiro Bound Hardcover
Price: AU $58 - including delivery
Sales tax or VAT may apply.
Pay with credit card or PayPal.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook is sold by and securely delivered via FastSpring. A publication from Learning from Nature, Hill Top Farm - working with Nature Pty Ltd
ISBN 9780646987149 26/4/2019
Digital Version
Price: AU $34
Sales tax or VAT may apply.
Pay with credit card or PayPal.
The Eco-logical Farming Handbook is sold by and securely delivered via FastSpring. A publication from Learning from Nature, Hill Top Farm - working with Nature Pty Ltd
ISBN 9780646987149 26/4/2019