Would a series of microfarms have been better able to withstand the rigors of the dust bowl days in the 1930s?

Question

instead of the large cleared expanses that were prevalent in the southern plains states in the US in the 1930s (and still are today), would a series of small micro-farms interspersed among the wilderness have been better suited to cope with the dust bowl conditions back then? or would they have been just as vulnerable to the winds and drought as the large open tracts were?

would a technique using micro-farming and/or permaculture be successful if such a situation arose again today? the climate is changing, it's best to have alternatives at the ready 'just in case'.

Answer 1

It wasn't the size of the farms and ability to cope with the conditions, it was tillage practice creating the conditions. Present day "no-till" agriculture on large farms saves money on tractor fuel and leaves the land in much better condition to resist wind erosion. There are a lot of areas in which modern agribusiness is coming closer to permaculture for purely economic reasons. There are also a lot of areas where those economics have been badly distorted in favor of larger businesses with political clout - ethanol from corn is a particularly egregious example.

Answer 2

Any thing that broke up the expansive acres of plowed ground would have helped the dust bowl days of the 1930's.  A series of small farms or micro-farms as you call them that grew alternate crops other than the crops grown on the expanse of broken ground certainly would have helped the dust bowl or the blowing away of the top soil.  It probably wouldn't have helped the drought conditions much.  You say the conditions in the 1930's (and still are today) is not really a fair or accurate statement.  Agriculture and farmers learned a lot from the dust bowl days.  There are still expansive acres of cleared acres of land but most of it is farmed with no tillage or minimum tillage of the land.  Cover crops or green manure crops are grown during the off seasons so that the land is not plowed up and left bare like in the 30's.  The droughts will come but the top soil will not be lost to the wind with today's agriculture.  Trees are planted as wind breaks.  The technique of micro-farming and permaculture inter-dispersed with the typical farms will be a big help, the more the better, but they won't be the savior of modern agriculture.  As far as the climate is changing,  there have been ice ages and melt downs before over thousands of years and undoubtedly we will have them again.  We should do everything in our power to help change it but I think most of it is out of our power and I don't fear for myself or my children or my children's grand children despite what Al Gore says.  I just do the best that I can with the land that I have to conserve the land, water, and wildlife and pass it on to the next generation in better shape than I got it.  And I hope that I have taught my children to do the same.

Answer 3

We cannot afford to just leave land without producing "just in case"...

Answer 4

The cause of the dust bowl was the plow.  

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Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, India, Uzbekistan

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Workshops in organic, no-till, permanent bed gardening, mini-farming and mini-ranching,

using bucket drip irrigation, worldwide, in English & Español

Proven Practices for Profitable Farming

These are based on the internet, US & international agriculture magazines, experiences teaching agriculture in many countries, research data and farmer experiences in those countries and a demonstration garden.  They are ecologically sustainable, environmentally responsible, socially just and economically viable.  There is unlimited, documented proof.  There are 90,000,000 no-till hectares worldwide.

Fukaoka Farm, Japan, has been no-till [rice, small grains, vegetables] for 70 years.  At the time of my visits, an Indian farmer has been no-till [vegetables] for 5 years, a Malawi farmer has been no-till [vegetables] on permanent beds for 25 years and a Honduras farmer has been no-till [vegetables & fruit] on permanent beds on the contour (73° slope] for 8 years.  Ruth Stout [USA] had a no-till garden for 30 years and 7,000 people visited her garden.  

No technique yet devised by man has been anywhere near as effective at halting soil erosion and making food production truly sustainable as 0-tillage (Baker)



1. Restore the soil to its natural health.  Contamination:  inorganic pesticides, insecticides & fertilizers

2. Maintain the healthy soil:  Healthy soil produces healthy crops with highest yields and prevents most disease, pest, weed and erosion problems.

3. Increase the soil’s organic matter every year.

4. Little or no external inputs [It is not necessary to buy anything, from anybody.  

5. Leave crop residue on top of soil. No burning.  You are burning up fertilizer.  Do not plow it into the soil.

6. Plant green manure/cover crops to increase the soil organic matter.  Seeds are available in every country.  

7. Plant the new crop in the crop residue by opening up a row or a place for the seed.

8. Plant every field every year [no fallow land]

9. 0-tillage: no plowing, no digging, no cultivating.  No hard physical labor required so children and the elderly can farm easily.  After two or three years the yields can double while reducing the labor by half as compared to traditional farming.  One farmer can farm ten acres alone using hand tools only [Honduras]

10. Permanent beds.  They were used 2000 BC in Guatemala, Mexico and many other countries.  15-25% of the land is in paths and that saves 15-25% of the seed, water and labor but yields will be higher.  Mark off the land in beds.  1½-2 meters wide and as long as the field or as you prefer.  Leave ½ meter between the beds.

11. Permanent paths  [walking] Paths can be, more or less, ½ meter wide between beds.  

12. Hand tools: machete, weed cutter, seeding hoe.  Local blacksmith should make them.

13. Soil always covered.  Never leave the soil bare.  

14. No compost making.  Use the organic matter for mulch.  If there is an excess, pile it up and use later.

15. Bucket drip irrigation should be used to produce food during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall:  Imported bucket drip kits are US$15.  A bucket drip line can be made locally from poly tubing [US$3, Nicaragua]. One will irrigate a row of crops 33 meters long using only 20 liters of water per day. Water can be from a stream, pond or well.  A drip kit returns $20 per month to the farmer [FAO study].

Ken Hargesheimer  [e-mail]

When Soil is Plowed

Dr. Elaine Ingham, describes an undisturbed grassland—where a wide diversity of plants grow, their roots mingling with a wide diversity of soil organisms—and how it changes when it is plowed.

A typical teaspoon of native grassland soil contains between 600 million and 800 million individual bacteria that are members of perhaps 10,000 species.  Several miles of fungi are in that teaspoon of soil, as well as 10,000 individual protozoa.  There are 20 to 30 beneficial nematodes from as many as 100 species. Root-feeding nematodes are quite scarce in truly healthy soils.  They are present, but in numbers so low that it is rare to find them.

After only one plowing, a few species of bacteria and fungi disappear because the food they need is no longer put back in the system.  But for the most part, all the suppressive organisms, all the nutrient cyclers, all the decomposers, all the soil organisms that rebuild good soil structure are still present and trying to do their jobs.

But tillage continues to deplete soil organic matter and kill fungi. The larger predators are crushed, their homes destroyed.  The bacteria go through a bloom and blow off huge amounts of that savings-account organic matter.  With continued tillage, the "policemen" (organisms) that compete with and inhibit disease are lost.  The "architects" that build soil aggregates are lost.  So are the "engineers"—the larger organisms that design and form the larger pores in soil.  The predators that keep bacteria, fungi, and root-feeding organisms in check are lost.  Disease suppression declines, soil structure erodes, and water infiltration decreases because mineral crusts form.  Dr. Elaine Ingham, BioCycle, December 1998.  (From ATTRA News, July 06)

Answer 5

First of all that is what was there in the 30's, small family farms. There was a set of improvements on every 160 acres almost. Today most of those farms are gone and entire sections have no trees or structures to make way for circle irrigation or more farmable acres. Second more acre  of grass has been put into production today. Third not that many farmers are doing no-til farming and those that did this year, where we had all this rain lost their crops due to weeds overcoming the wheat. No it would not have made a difference to have had micro-farms without the irrigation and technology of today.

Answer 6

yes, most likely, the different textures and rooting depths and fences would have made the land more resistant to wind, for one thing.

Answer 7

Don't forget that the farmers might need to make a living out of the farms.  Do you think that they could do that with one of these micro-farms?   Sometimes droughts are so severe and long-lasting that a lot of people don't understand that problems can be natural, not just man-made.  Establishing and leaving areas of natural vegetation and windbreaks, conservation farming, and other practices are available that can help protect the soil as well as possibly being viable farming practices.  At the end of the day though, it also relies on things probably out of the control of the farmers too, such as climate and weather, and economics and markets.  That is my opinion anyway.  Good luck.

Answer 8

It might have helped, but as mentioned already the problem was not where we farmed but the methods. The huge expanses of pulverized soil, from plowing and adding chemicals instead of organic material, when exposed to drought conditions, made a loose fine grained material with no cohesion. Add now the mechanics of blowing wind and all the lightest material, the pulverized organic components, clay, and the fine sand all separate and blow away. That was all the best material of a somewhat "iffy" area. Separating and parceling into micro farms, or acreage windrows to stop the heavy winds, would not have been a huge difference. It ended up to be one of those lessons learned because the cost was so huge. We know a lot more now, almost a hundred years later but we are slow to put it to use.

We have climate issues now that we are just starting to understand. The causes are a combination of our impact and natural climate changes that occur. Kind of the same scenario as the dust bowl years. When we say "the impact of global warming" most people think hotter. The fact is not necessarily hotter, but hotter hots, colder colds, and very unsettled weather with a lot of extremes and very short notice. We need to inventory a number of things in the world of farming. Irrigation will be an issue, storm damage and winter damage also. Some of the best farm land in the world, that found in river valleys/ plains will be threatened. Everyone will end up paying more for food and culturally that will cause a lot of unrest. But physically, the farmer will be tested. Those who have protected their resources will be better able to cope. Those in need now will be further in need later and in a time when resources will be strained. I expect though that as a people we will shine, and hope it brings us closer.