You really think farmer acceptance is questionable to Ms Market? ... can't see that myself ... may be blinded by long term familiarity with this sort of stuff, but surely cannot be alone in that ... greensand was the first fertiliser to duplicate the effects of actual potash, which was wood ashes, it's been used for centuries - to call it 'unconventional' is to turn history upside down
Farmers are famously conservative, for sure, and for good reason ... they are also natural experimental scientists as well, in many cases ... i deal with farmers all the time [am typing at this moment while waiting for one to show up], and can't think of one that isn't trying something new on some corner of his place, new crops, new ways of cultivating or shaping the land, and new soil amendments being top of pretty much all lists ... i use 'soil amendments' there because it's a better term than 'fertiliser', which covers something like ammonia solution in water - pour that over roots and wham, you've sent nitrogen straight to vascular system, pour a little too much and you've killed the plant, game over ... either way, doesn't matter, you haven't amended the soil, which you could have done had you applied organic materials such as manures, and/or rock phosphate, and/or dolomitic lime, and/or greensand, which all have lasting benefit ... these are basic truths that even hard-core chemical farmers understand, in my experience, even in the seventeenth parallel tropical paradise my in-laws inhabit, and they're not yuppified over-educated under-worked prima donnas like the folks around here, either
When the economics make the sort of sense they do with greensand in the Cerrado, the problem will soon become how do you supply the demand ... it does have to get rolling first, yes, you need recognised leaders to start experimenting with it, then it takes off ... which is your point really, now that i more thoroughly read your post, lol ... yes for years i've toyed with the idea of flying down there and backpacking around as a Lonely Planet sort of tourist, looking for cash work maybe, becoming a regular at some local cantina, really getting a feel for this project ... can't economically justify that with the size of punt i'm able to make, but what an experience, eh |
