Fractional Farming.

Fractional farming is based upon the notion of credit creation. The process of credit creation in economics is based upon a process where a loan is deposited and re-lent. Assuming that 10% of all deposits must be held for liquidity reasons, a loan of ten thousand dollars grows as each borrower deposits their loan into their own accounts and is made available for loan by their bank as per the table below.

If we can maintain the energy of the sun in varying forms on the land we are custodians of, then we are given the opportunity to increase our sunlight credits. As each unit of feed passes through an action - digestion, composting, plant growth - we are able to add more of the sun’s radiant light to our store of matter. It follows then that the more actions we can include in our processes prior to sale or off farm transfer, the better we will be able to enrich the soil under our care.

Now if it takes 100 units of sunlight in all forms to grow a hectare of wheat, for example, and yet only 50 units of sunlight falls upon that hectare in a growing season we have two options. We can purchase the 50 extra units needed as chemical fertilisers which are no more than modified ancient sunlight in the form of hydrocarbons or we can store up units of sunlight as organic matter and include these in the process. To save sunlight in organic matter has two aspects. We can grow green manures or we can create animal manures. The quickest way to concentrate sunlight is to pass it through the body of an animal. The more times sunlight is cycled through animals, the longer it lasts and more available this energy is to maintain the cycles.

So the longer and more complex the rotational cycle in an enterprise, the greater the savings in energy inputs and the greater the types of energy expressions and the “better” the soil is suited  to the growing of a cash crop.

Buying in a bale of hay, feeding it to the goats and capturing the droppings makes the dung available to grow maize. The stover is then fed to the goats and more dung collected. The corn heads are ground and fed to the sheep, more dung. The dung is then used to grow vetch. The vetch is grazed by the goats and then turned under. To this is added more goat dung. This is used to grow oats. Meanwhile the sheep are feeding on pasture and returning their dung to that. The oat straw is returned to the soil that grew it and the grain fed to the goats. More dung from the goats. All the while the goats are producing milk and sheep growing fleece. Both species are also reproducing and providing meat. The maize, vetch, oat area is now sown to peas and pasture and the cycle continues. Meanwhile part of the pasture the sheep are on is turned under to start a new maize crop utilising the dung of both sheep and goats.

The system is continually growing by the process of energy capture. It is unlikely that a 90% recycling of sunlight occurs as with credit creation but the principle holds true. How is this possible in a closed system? We have a closed system - the earth, with an outside energy source - the sun. Provided that we can wait for and can create a return that has high economic and low sunlight value we can set up a self sustaining system that actually can provide almost infinite growth within the parameters of diminishing returns. We will not be buying in sunlight, we will be providing converted sunlight energies in complex varied forms and reducing oil usage.

The role of the humans in this system is to monitor, maintain, redirect and harvest. The cycle described above has but two species of stock. If we add more species the system becomes more complex and hence more efficient at trapping and cycling the sunlight.

Limits are imposed upon this system by outside factors:- volume and delivery of sunlight at the location, water availability, soil pH and trace elements.

Soil pH and trace elements can be adjusted. In the case of trace elements, by either feeding it through animals or spreading directly on the soil. pH can be adjusted over time with applications to the soil or plants can be selected for the pH, perhaps a better answer.

Water availability is a different matter, it is a limiting sunlight fraction. By retaining and recycling the water as we do the other sunlight equivalents, the decision on which cash rich fractionally low product becomes more important. Following the rotation above, the soil will develop a greater water holding capability. But! But the water, to begin with, must be available. Given sufficient sunlight, then water is the key determinant.

Not the available water, per se, but the maximum available and useable water in the driest of years. Will the product selected flourish in these dry years? If so, will it also flourish at the other extreme?

Irrigation is a question that must be addressed. We have evidence from the early periods of agriculture that demonstrate the danger of flood irrigation. The salt marshes of southern Iraq are evidence of the follies of flood irrigation.

Sunlight available at the location and water availability are two major limiting factors in the setting up of a fractional system. And every farming operation is a fractional system!