Farming and agriculture form the backbone of our world. Humans would never have progressed to forming civilisations as we know it if they hadn’t developed farming and agriculture.
Conventional or industrial farming is a process that has been optimised over the years to meet our ever-increasing demands, bringing with it its own issues like damage to the environment, particularly in the case of soil damage, and the need for new farmland, which can often lead to natural environments being disrupted.
The damage done to people and communities as a result of the use of fertilisers and GMO (genetically modified organism) crops along with the effects of the farming process on humans and communities, is also heavily debated.
Permaculture comes into play as a potential alternative to industrial farming, although the application of permaculture in an industrial context is in need of some fine-tuning, particularly to meet industrial demand.
But what is permaculture? And how can it work in a Sri Lankan context?
Permaculture as a concept
The term “permaculture” was first coined by Australian biologist Bill Mollison and his student David Holmgren in the 1970s. It combines “permanent agriculture” and “permanent culture” and advocates three key ethics: people care, earth care, and fair share.
Permaculture is essentially a toolbox to see connections in nature, integrate resources, and utilise them to their full potential to create regenerative systems that use natural processes to provide resources that look after the land and the people in it, while returning a fair share back to the ecosystem to facilitate healing.
Based on farming practices, particularly influenced by the Japanese natural farmer Masanobu Fukuoka, and combined with a number of scientific findings in agriculture, permaculture provides a set of principles which offer practical guidance on how to build functional and sustainable alternatives that bring together the needs of humans and nature.
In a practical sense, permaculture focuses on understanding the relationships between different plants and building more sustainable human settlements. Permaculture practices include planting a year-round food landscape, restorative soil practices, conserving water, reusing waste as fertiliser, and on the whole, building a more companionable and natural environment.
Permaculture has gained global following in the years since its inception and is practised by various communities around the world in diverse and unique ways.
The Woods Haputale, bringing permaculture to Sri Lanka
The Woods is a beautiful, eco-friendly lodge in the tropical jungles near Nickpotha, Sri Lanka, close to Haputale. The 13-acre property is surrounded by lush greenery, bordered by a beautiful river, and has a wealth of biodiversity.
In addition to being a beautiful lodge, The Woods is home to one of Sri Lanka’s few permaculture cultivations. The Sunday Morning Brunch spoke with The Woods Owner Rajanayagam Prassana Kumar to learn more.
Purchased by Kumar in 2009 after years of searching for the perfect property, The Woods started as a city escape for Kumar and his family, inspired by the farming-led life of his grandparents. With the size of The Woods and its rich biodiversity (the property has over 100 species of birds), Kumar decided to make it something that could be enjoyed by more people and so converted it into a guesthouse with a heavy focus on ecological exploration and emotional wellbeing.
The Woods is Sri Lanka’s first permaculture and agroforestry training and demonstration centre and also works as a host site for Permaculture Network Sri Lanka.
After his introduction to permaculture in 2018, Kumar worked with his brother, Rajanayagam Dinesh Kumar, and a close friend, P. Muthuraj, to incorporate permaculture and its principles into daily life at The Woods, implementing the concepts taught by permaculture designer and facilitator Asanga Namal Jayasinghe with the support of his team and the nearby community.
For Kumar, permaculture is a holistic and regenerative ecosystem design toolbox that he can use to maximise human potential to the fullest and find a niche or function in the living system for The Woods and its team, and live in a harmonious and beneficial manner with nature.
Kumar found permaculture most illuminating. He explained: “Permaculture opens your mind and you become aware of the patterns that are working all around you in the environment you live in and share with billions of other creatures, organisms, plants, and trees.”
Implementing permaculture at The Woods is not an entirely easy process and is one that takes time. Kumar is still in the early stages of a larger plan to use permaculture to make The Woods entirely self-sustainable, for the property itself as well as the communities of the people who work at The Woods.
Bringing the permaculture philosophy to Sri Lanka
Kumar and Jayasinghe, along with permaculture enthusiast and consultant Roman Eisenkolbl, have been working over the last two years to spread the word on permaculture. In 2018, they piloted Sri Lanka’s first permaculture programme out of The Woods, conducting a two-night “Introduction to Permaculture” programme.
In 2019, they conducted a programme focusing on agroforestry, a technique of raising multiple food crops within the same plot to create a “food forest”.
In February 2021, the team hopes to conduct their most ambitious permaculture-focused workshop yet, a two-week programme, titled the “Permaculture Design Cause”. The programme will be an immersive experiential workshop teaching participants about the core principles and ethics of permaculture.
Jayasinghe explained that over the course of the programme, which is 72 teaching hours, participants will learn how the three core principles of permaculture – people care, earth care, and fair share – are woven into all aspects of the process, creating a more mindful and companionable way of life for the communities who practise it.
The people care aspect of permaculture, which is about implementing systems that make sure the products and processes involved in farming do not harm any people on an emotional, physical, financial, and social level, will be covered in detail, emphasising how permaculture can benefit farmers and communities in the long run.
Participants will learn how the earth care aspect comes through in the planting and management stage of crops, paying attention to things like minimising soil damage and water usage, planting year-round crop collections, reusing waste products as fertiliser, and creating a more natural space for farming as a whole.
Fair share, its role in permaculture, and the importance of reinvesting any excess and holistically creating abundance will also play a big role in the programme, and teach participants about the various benefits of permaculture.
Going back to farming the way nature intended
There is much debate on the effectiveness and impact of different forms of farming, be it conventional farming, industrial farming, or alternative farming. Particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has essentially forced the whole world to take a step back and reflect on the sustainability and core values of life, the concept of permaculture, of more sustainable, holistic, and emotionally nurturing farming, has a great deal of potential.
With the efforts of Kumar, Jayasinghe, and the team at The Woods, it will be interesting to see how smaller properties and communities can become self-sufficient through permaculture and other similar farming techniques, and how this, in turn, can affect how Sri Lanka as a nation looks at agriculture.
