Das Fukuoka Dokument

German version only!
DVD
PAL, 30 min
Price: EUR 19,90

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This document is in German only. It shows 86 year old Fukuoka in the first big action of reforestation of 10.000 ha in northern Greece. First results and more seeding in Greece as well as follow-up projects in Portugal and Italy are included.

Soil erosion, floods, decrease of the oxygen in the atmosphere gradual increase of the global temperature and millions of acres of fertile land turned into deserts: the heavy toll for the forests that are being destroyed.
The expansion of the desert is becoming a big threat all over the world.

Seeds packed into clay pellets

The method is to sow seeds of forest trees, bushes, fruit trees, green manure plants, vegetables and grains all together, before the rainy season starts. To protect the seeds from the birds and the small animals in general, they are wrapped into clay balls, called „pellets". The seeds protected like this are thrown on the land and stay in its clay cover until the environmental conditions allow them to germinate.

Seeds begin to germinate

One year later, the plants that will survive, will be the ones adapted to the local conditions. By sowing a big variety of seeds we can be sure that some will germinate, no matter if the conditons are not favourable. On a large scale the seeds can be quickly spread by airplanes, like it already happened in India and Tanzania.

The helicopter will throw out millions of seeds

Fukuoka has got sixty years of experience of working with nature. In many experiments with growing rice, grains, fruit and vegetables he came to a very simple „Do Nothing" - method in cooperation with nature. Fukuoka does not plough his fields, doesn´t do any weeding, does not use herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizer nor prepared compost, doesn´t sow the seeds neatly in rows but spreads them over his ground in big throws. His harvest is very big and can be easily compared with that of „normal" farmers.

Masanobu Fukuoka

His ground is completely healthy, flora and fauna exist in big variety. He always sold his biological fruit and vegetables for a cheaper price on the market than the usual products, because he had less work with it, he sais. Since many years scientists, farmers, students and other interested people come to his farm to visit, or to live and work with him for a while.

At the first big seeding action an area of 10,000 in Northern Greece around the lake Vegoritis was covered with seeds. The hills around the lake were bold, the waterlevel of the lake had gone down by 50 metres. The idea was to improve the local climate with greening a huge area around the lake. Many volunteers from all over the world came to help Fukuoka in this big seeding action. First the seeds were covered in pellets and then sown onto the land. Partly the seeding was done with the help of a helicopter which was provided by the Greek government.
Every year there are more seeding actions. Important questions will be: how to protect the new plants from sheperds and other damaging influences? How big is the interest of the local population?

Masanobu Fukuoka was 86 years old when we filmed him in Greece. He inspired the philosophy of natural farming and developed a method to revegetate the deserts. He comments rather characteristically: „While standing in an American desert, I suddenly realized that rain does not fall from the heavens; it issues forth from the ground. Deserts do not form because there is no rain; rather rain ceases to fall because the vegetation has disappeared. Building a dam in the desert is an attempt to treat the symptoms of the disease, but it is not a strategy for increasing rainfall. First we have to learn how to restore the ancient forests." Masanobu Fukuoka died in 2008 at the age of 96.