Syntropic Farming Explained

by Charles Otway

Syntropic farming is a form of regenerative agroforestry driven by the power of natural succession which is beyond organic and beyond sustainable – it produces a natural abundance. If entropy is energy being lost from a system, syntropy is the opposite – an ongoing exponential gain of energy. It is a system of growing plants where we enable the right species, in the right place, at the right time in order to create their own fertiliser, pest control and water access, and which gets stronger every day. 

Origins

Syntropic farming was developed by Ernst Götsch in Brazil. Its strength comes from aligning with the power of natural succession. Natural succession is the tendency for nature to rehabilitate land, taking it from barren to fertile and densely vegetated.

Ernst observed that this evolutionary process was driven by cooperation among members of the living system in a way that benefits the system as a whole. This is contrary to the Darwinian model which views evolution as being driven by competition. What may appear as competition or destruction in a natural environment is really an attempt to create balance for the benefit of the whole system.

Caution: It should be noted that most explanations of syntropic farming – Ernst a prime example – come from fertile tropical rainforests or high cost, ‘instant agriculture’ installations. Therefore some rational thinking as well as research is required when starting out to avoid costly mistakes. 

Basics

The real power of syntropy is in repairing degraded landscapes so that we can, in time, manage our forest syntropically. With heavily degraded ecosystems and resultant soils, we are generally starting in what syntropic farming calls the accumulation stage. At this point the safest and most resource efficient way to start a complex system is to start with a simple one. That is, plant densely – and in lines (for easier management) – the strongest infestation species you can find. 

An infestation, while normally seen as a problem, is actually the best adapted plant for the conditions at the point in time. The more of it that grows and the thicker, the faster the system will improve to support more diverse plants. For this reason in WA – while recipes should be used with caution – it is often suggested to plant Acacia Saligna at 3m spacing, or densely sprinkled as seeds, to achieve the same dense thicket – and worry about fancy consortia in a few years time. It is the short, rapid life of these weedy pioneers on what was bare soil or grassland that creates shade, leaf litter, wind breaks, and habitat that is required for the next stage of regenerative forestry. These pioneer habitat trees offer shelter for birds and combined with quick maturing food sources like blackberries, kangaroo apples and autumn olive will ensure nature sows many more seeds with the visiting wildlife manure. 

Finding the strongest species for your infestation can be trial and error but is often informed by disturbed forest edges, abandoned farms, road verges and refuse sites. Starting your tests with local native wattles and other legumes is a safe bet, if a native can do the job why risk an exotic weed.

While syntropic planting plans often end in analysis paralysis, in reality, plant your infestation pilot trial then what to do next is informed by what nature grows. These trees’ lifecycles are short and intense so the next stage is a year or two away at most and you will learn by doing.

While we might start far from it with our infestation monocultures, aspirationally the farm will be a unified, intelligent, living system which is meant to evolve over time (succession). For this to happen there are complex interactions occurring between the plants (and animals) and every living being serves an important purpose in the process. When these cooperative relationships are promoted and accelerated by the farmer, the farm develops into a strong, healthy, living system (macro-organism).

The accumulation stage may be growing grass to cut and windrow to feed the soil and help our first trees grow. Those trees will also not produce any usable crops, but will contribute positively to the farm as “biomass”. A farmer can then start to introduce a minor component of plants and trees that produce a harvest – called “target” plants and trees. This combination of vegetation is grown together closely, in a way that is mutually beneficial. The farmer also needs a deep understanding of how the vegetation responds positively to pruning and to cut it back at strategic times to promote rapid growth.

After a few years, the system becomes partly autonomous. It can provide its own irrigation, fertilizer, crowd out undesirable plants and resist disease. It just needs some management from the farmer. This management becomes easier with time as the high numbers and low cost of seedling plants allows the necessary ‘unconditional love of life’ to occur. For example, some mango seeds grow into target trees but the sick looking ones, or those in the wrong spot, are cut for mulch like any other biomass plant. Everything is a ‘biomass plant’ at some point in its life.

How does it resist disease? It works like healthy gut flora. When humans have a strong community of healthy microorganisms in their gut, there is no room for harmful agents to take hold. The same is true for a healthy farm system. For this to work, the system needs to be teeming with life. It needs an above average amount of biological density, as is seen in a healthy forest. When this is achieved, the farm resists disease and produces an abundance. The farmer simply has to design the system with detailed foresight and manage its maturation with strategic pruning. The farm will take care of the rest.

In the early stages of your pilot trials just plant whatever you can get your hands on that seems hardy and nature will show you what to plant more of and when. However, in time, an efficient Syntropic farm relies on intelligent, biodiverse and dense planting schemes. The planting schemes are made up of consortiums. The term consortium is used to describe a mix of both trees and vegetables which can be cooperatively grown together. This is similar to companion planting and intercropping, but more complicated because it takes into consideration the plants’ role in natural succession. 

Because it is based on natural succession, the mix of plants which do well together are grouped by their life span. Some consortiums are present only in the beginning, while other ones dominate later on. A typical planting scheme will use the consortiums sequentially from the early stages of succession all the way to the final stages. A planting scheme can be complicated because it takes into account the future vision of the farm. It does so in a way to optimally produce waves of harvests, one after the other, first starting with veggies and then, later, following with fruit and wood from trees. Each wave represents the maturation of another consortium. As mentioned before, some of the vegetation will be grown for harvest, while other vegetation will be grown solely for the purpose of pruning and driving succession forward.

Syntropic farming can be used to rehabilitate degraded (“dead”) land, introduced to existing farmland or be used to turn wild jungle into a food forest.  Three needed recipes for Western Australia are:

1. a native only revegetation plant palette and management regime,
2. a broad acre farming/ecosystem tree establishment plant and management recipe and
3. an intense food oriented recipe for village commons foodscapes, market gardens and urban backyards.

Syntropic farming recognizes that farmland and wild forest can have differing levels of vitality. It is not just a black and white situation. Weeds have a role and a timeline, and very little pristine wilderness exists. By ongoing observation you will learn to recognize “where” the land is at in its evolution and implement strategies to help boost it from that point.

What makes syntropic farming valuable is its high level of sustainability. After each cycle of crops, the land is better than it was before and everything needed to achieve this can be grown on site. Some people may mistakenly think that conventional farming is also self-sufficient. It appears that everything just grows from the land, right? Wrong! Conventional farmers rely heavily on external inputs of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides as well as fossil fuel driven machinery for working the land. Even most organic farmers rely heavily on external inputs.

Syntropic farming achieves similar or greater yields without relying on resources from outside of the farm. This redefines what most people think of when they speak of sustainability. What is most phenomenal about syntropic farming is that it goes beyond being self-sufficient. The farm doesn’t just sustain itself, it eventually produces an abundance without external inputs. There are reports of harvests of 40 tons/hectare/year, compared to the best mono-culture yields which are about 11-15 tons/hectare/year.

More resources

Syntropic farming is new to Western Australia with most installations only a few years old. To become involved you can join the community on Facebook at Syntropic Agriculture Western Australia.  The hardest aspect of syntropic farming is access to cheap bulk seed and propagation material that allows you to start with low risk and low attachment to individual plants. So jump on Facebook and find some locals or, if you can’t use Facebook, send me an email at charles@terraperma.com.au and I can point you in the right direction.

The following pages are some illustrations from Scott Hall’s east coast education forum Syntropia, Permadynamics in NZ  and Ernst Götsch’s texts and websites which may help with some of these concepts. Syntropia offers a practical Australian introduction to syntropic farming and a worldwide group of peers to chat with for US$10 a month, so is a highly recommended starting point – harvest all the course material for a month or pay for a year at US$90.