Dr.Teruo Higa’s
Living A Dream

2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008

#86: APNAN (Asia Pacific Natural Agriculture Network) 25th Anniversary Conference in 2014

The APNAN 25th Anniversary Conference was held in Johor Bahru, Malaysia over three days, from July 24th to 26th. APNAN was started in 1989 after the First International Nature Farming and EM Technology Conference was held in Thailand; a large number of participants who were moved by the results seen there desired to spread this Technology to Asia and the Pacific Ocean region to help the poor farmers become independent and disseminate sustainable Nature Farming that protects the environment. 

As is already clear, if you make good quality Activated EM solution yourself, many materials--manure and garbage, as well as naturally occurring organic matter--can become high quality fermented material, and can be utilized as feed livestock, in aquaculture materials, and as organic fertilizer.


Participants at the APNAN 25th anniversary conference

In addition, if you do foliar spraying once every 3 to 4 days using a 1:5-10 dilution of good quality Activated EM solution of pH3.5 or less, insect pests will disappear, and you will obtain high quality agricultural products with significantly increased yield.

As a result, farmers won't need to buy chemical fertilizers and pesticides, weeds will contribute to soil fertility, and no-till farming will also be possible. If home seed-raising and other creative methods are adapted, farmers will become both independent and have a more sure economic footing. In Thailand, which utilizes EM as part of national policy, countless such cases can be seen.

With this as its starting point, the APNAN office was opened in Bangkok at the end of 1989, and we started working together with the International Nature Farming Research Center and the Thailand headquarters of Sekai Kyusei Kyo. The main business of APNAN is production of EM, technical guidance and model development in the member states, and the implementation of international training at the Asian Human Nature Farming Center in Saraburi, Thailand. Well over a thousand people from Asian countries have been trained there, and they have gone on to become valuable human resources in their home countries.

70 people or so from 20 countries participated in this year’s conference. The first day was a tour of the EM model city under construction in Johor Bahru. 1250 units of the first phase of construction of 1300 houses have been completed, and all the buildings, including schools and shopping malls, use EM in their construction. A spacious pool also used EM in all aspects of construction. These buildings should last for over 500 years, up to 800 years, even semi-permanently if EM is used in their maintenance.

Since over 1500 tons of EM was used in construction, this area has become an intense power spot, with effects several times that of EM for general use.

Naturally, people living in such buildings will never get sick, and the large pool at its center has already become a kind of sacred water. From these two points alone it is no exaggeration to say this is a kind of earthly paradise. Plants have grown so lushly that this area has become like a plant paradise, energy-saving effects will exceed 30%, and the function of electrical appliances will significantly improve.

Of course there will be no fear of lightning, and within the area where waves emanate from the buildings (the surrounding 800-1,000 meters) dust and PM2.5 will be rendered inactive. Damage from the sun’s ultraviolet rays will decrease, rainwater will be extremely clean and pure, and incidents of crime will dramatically decrease.




Construction progresses on the EM model city

I was asked my impressions by President Steven, and I answered, “I would love to move here, and bring all those working with EM to reside here as well.” People find this all hard to believe, but in 3-4 years we will be able to prove it through a variety of statistical data, and I am confident that this EM-based architecture will become the world standard for future architecture.

On the second and third days of the conference there were reports on EM activities and the situation in various countries. EM has become rooted in each country in a form that reflects the circumstances of each nation, and it is only a matter of time before this reaches the level of its use in Thailand.

Some countries like the U.S., China, and Korea can meet the needs of large scale projects; countries like Indonesia, India and Cambodia are training great numbers of people, and working in tandem with the government have created an essential system; in countries like Bhutan the agricultural ministry has organized a school-based agriculture program, every school has EM educational programs, and the entire country is steadily implementing a system to expand the use of EM; and in countries like Malaysia, the private and public sectors work together, building various EM-based models and promoting EM. I cannot help but be impressed by the changes over time. 

APNAN began by emphasizing the spread of Nature Farming, but over time the power of EM spread to garbage treatment, purification of sewage, the livestock field, and at present it is used in all sanitation measures, in architecture, and has spread to aquaculture, where it has become a preeminent element in shrimp farming around the world.What stood out for me in this conference was the complete absence of questions for the presenters.

The attendees already understood the contents of the presentations, and the gathering has become more a venue for information sharing. In my closing remarks I touched on this point, and also expressed my appreciation that everyone present deeply understandsthe spirit embodied in my book An Earth-Saving Revolution (Sunmark Publishing, 1993).
 
Courtesy of Ecopure

Editor’s Picks

2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008