The Farmers' Handbook
Below are listed all the individual chapters of the Farmers' Handbook (FHB) - click on each link to view and then download the chapter as you want
Volume 1 Inside the House (Zone 0)
- importance & sources of nutritious food from local resources
- reasons for health problems & simple hints to overcome them at home
- how to build a fuel efficient, smokeless stove using local resources
5. Hay Box
- make a stove which cooks food without using fuel
Volume 2 Near the House 1 (Zone 1a)
- a simple structure to recycle domestic waste water for use in the garden
- how to recycle waste materials to make good quality compost
- how to make & use a low-cost pit latrine which can then be recycled into a planting pit
- how to make better compost quicker with minimum extra work
- how to grow crops keeping the soil covered to reduce work & erosion
- how to build a highly productive vegetable bed requiring digging only once every 3-4 years
- how to improve local varieties, produce & store market-quality seed
9. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
- principles & practices of reducing crop losses to pests through use of local materials
- how to make & use effective pest control & nutrient "teas" made from local resources
- how to improve the productivity of local livestock through selection, diet & stall management using locally available materials
12. Beekeeping
- easy improvements to traditional beekeeping to raise production of better quality bee products
- how to build small scale, self maintained & cheap drinking water systems using local skills & materials instead of cement
Volume 3 Near the House 2 (Zone 1b)
- principles & practices to create & maintain a low-input, high output kitchen garden for home vegetable production
- a method of growing many varieties (polyculture) of vegetables together to save space, water & work while producing a continuous supply of food from the kitchen garden
- how to produce onions out of season when a high price can be obtained
- a species list of 18 useful herbs, their cultivation & uses
- how to grow a variety of different plants requiring different techniques for home use
- how to build & manage a nursery for off season vegetables in cold climates
- how to build & maintain a nursery suspended above the ground to produce trees which are better able to survive transplanting
- how to cultivate vegetable varieties which are difficult to transplant using local resources
10. Introduction to Fruit Production
- introducing later booklets about propagating and planting fruit trees, and orchard management
- how to make & manage a home or commercial nursery to produce root stock for grafting/budding of fruit trees
- how to graft improved varieties of fruit at home
- another technique to graft & produce improved fruit trees
- a method of grafting for mango trees which is faster, cheaper & easier than conventional methods, & more suitable for the farmer to produce mangos locally
Volume 4 The Fields (Zone 2/3)
- a technique using certain soil-improving plants grown in fallow periods or alongside traditional crops to increase production with minimal extra inputs
- how to grow comparable yields of summer rice & winter wheat without digging or transplanting, & with reduced compost/fertiliser and weeding
- using trees with field crops to increase diversity of products while insuring soil & water conservation & improvement
- how to plant your orchard to get optimum production from the land in the quickest possible time to obtain a wide range of benefits as well as fruit
- how to plant & manage fruit trees to get most benefit, and produce other crops too
- another way of cultivating fruit trees from your favorite varieties without needing a nursery (best at higher altitudes)
- a way of cultivating fruit trees from your favorite varieties without needing a nursery (best at lower altitudes)
- a simple technique to cultivate this useful species allowing more clumps to be established for much less work
- how to build & maintain an edge which is a fence with multiple other benefits
11. S.R.I. (System of Rice Intensification)
- a method of growing paddy rice with less water, less seed and greater productivity
Volume 5 Forest, Soil, Design and other Topics (Zone 4/5)
- how to create & manage community or private forest for best & sustained benefit
3. Soil Conservation & Improvement
- principles & practices of soil management to protect & build soil with minimum input & maximum use of local resources
- how to make & use an A-frame for use in soil conservation work
- hints to create & manage a revolving village fund to allow members greater access to credit
6. Design
- how to organise all the above on the homestead to raise & diversify production, using the principles of permaculture design
7. Glossary, Practical Literacy & other topics
- a glossary of difficult words; guidelines on use of the FHB for REFLECT-type literacy classes; list of picture acknowledgments; permaculture defined
Posters