The microbiome is so essential that human life is impossible without it. From experience, parents and farmers know that babies and young animals need colostrum soon after birth or hatching to survive.

From experience, farmers have observed that some plants grow better together, or not at all when separated, and even so the survival of many species is linked one to another, some depending on others for pollination, a part of their life cycle or to spread seeds.

When people took the first baby steps in agriculture they had a lot to learn. When people started keeping domestic animals instead of hunting they soon found out that there were many problems to solve. Having animals graze on the same patch every day soon turned the soil hard and barren. Keeping great numbers of livestock in a confined space made animals sicker and weaker than their wild counterparts. Planting a single type of crop in a field made the crop vulnerable to a single pest or disease.

The first solutions to depleted and damaged soil were to simply slash and burn a new piece of pristine wilderness and start all over again. When pristine wilderness became scarce and to increase yields, growth stimulants in the form of chemical fertilizers became popular and remain in widespread use today.  To combat weeds, pests and animal diseases, herbicides, pesticides and antibiotics have become widely used. As crops started to suffer from the overuse of herbicides and pesticides some have been genetically modified to be herbicide-resistant.  Many crops now incorporate the BTI (Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis) gene in their genome that make them produce their own pesticide to kill insects that want to eat them.

Farmers get advice from soil analysts that explain that the soil has been depleted of minerals, and chemical fertilizers are then ordered to supplement these deficiencies in the soil. The cost of genetically modified seeds and planting material, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and chemical fertilizers represent the bulk of production expenses on many farms. The use of chemical fertilizers eventually decrease fertility because of nitrification and contribute to water pollution. For some, this has become an inescapable vicious circle.

During the 1980s a researcher in microbiology in Japan, Prof Teruo Higa discovered that while many microorganisms are useful when used alone in the production of for example beer, wine, bread, cheese, sour cabbage, fermented fish and preserves, no single organism alone has any beneficial effect on the health of and production of crops and animals.The breakthrough was the discovery that when microorganisms of all types are combined to a point where they are in balance with each other, plants and animals thrive just like their wild counterparts.

EMRO, the Effective Microorganisms Research Organisation (http://www.emrojapan.com) are leaders in this field and are active in many countries throughout the world teaching farmers how to use microorganisms for organic farming in a sustainable manner.

At Microlife Agricultural Products (Pty) Ltd we assist farmers in South Africa with advice on organic farming and EM Technology® as taught to us by EMRO South Africa and our many years of experience in this field. We supply to the end user our line of Agricultural Microbes. Our own brand is Microlife Landbou Mikrobes – Agricultural Microbes (shortened to Microlife LM-AM).

Whenever our products contain Effective Microorganisms® or EM® it will be stated on the label. Disclaimer: “EM® and Effective Microorganisms® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of EM Research Organization, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.“

Conditions in South Africa are unique.  Microlife LM-AM products are adapted to local conditions and to specific crops and applications. One particular aspect of South African conditions is the need for ground cover, 5cm to 10 cm insulating organic material is typically needed between rows of crops to protect the soil from the sun and to keep the moisture from baking out.

Many parts of South Africa, like  Limpopo or the Free State or Northwest, receive some of the highest solar radiation on Earth. Without ground cover, the soil bakes even under shade cloth. When the soil bakes crops can die and the microbiome is damaged. In our experience applying microbes to baking soil has little effect.

Microlife Agricultural Products (Pty) Ltd is proud to have on its team Jan Bouwman. Jan has for more than forty years bred cattle and endurance Arabian horses. Jan is a master farrier that does not shoe horses anymore but believes in conditioning the hooves through sufficient wear and tear to achieve the sought after mustang roll.

Jan could be described as a “horse whisperer “who has for years trained countless students at his stables in the love and understanding of horses and how to compete in endurance races without killing the horse. Many city dwellers stable their horses at his facility near Pietersburg/Polokwane in Limpopo. Jan only trims the hooves when there is insufficient natural wear or to correct a problem.  Jan is an advocate of bit-less horse riding, riding competitively without a bit, with only a hackamore, a type of halter that lacks a bit. He holds many local and international endurance race titles. He is the author of articles about the advantages of barefoot and bit-less.

On his own farm, Jan has for years now practiced organic farming using microbes for and in everything and compost for everything else. He further practices high impact short duration grazing followed by months of recovery and advises on the use of ground cover and Microlife Landbou Mikrobes – Agricultural Microbes in the production of crops.

The science of no-till farming, compost instead of chemicals, and high impact short duration grazing are farming tools used in obtaining organic crop certification. Cattle are for example used to weed between rows in an orchard; the dung and urine are mixed with the soil by the hooves enriching it and the cattle is then removed so the soil can recover fully.

Microlife Agricultural Products (Pty) Ltd approaches sustainable chemical-free farming by observing nature and working with it instead of using force to overpower Creation.

Microlife Landbou Mikrobes – Agricultural Microbes ( Microlife LM – AM) are a tool that assists the land steward in achieving sustainable and productive.