Hi Efren.
The problem with industrial organic farming methods is the industrial part. That part basically requires a monocrop, lots of the same stuff planted in the same way, in the same space, coming to maturity at the same time, all to be easily harvestable by machine and sold as a bulk food good.
What this does is put thousands of the same thing in the same place, taking the same specific minerals and nutrients out of the same place, which causes nutrient and mineral deficiencies, which require amendment.
Nature tries to fix this by putting other plants in the same place, to maybe grab minerals and nutrients from other parts of the soil strata, to be shared out by fungal and bacterial interactions. We see this as a problem for harvest, and so spray the hell out of everything. So instead of having healthy, living soil that works to distribute needed minerals and nutrients to the different plants that need them, we get a sterile outdoor potting mixture that we have to amend ourselves.
Now because there is so much of the same thing in one place, it's scent profile is very prominent, drawing all the kinds of pest that like to eat that thing. So instead of doing the smart thing and interplanting with plants that disrupt that scent profile, we spray the hell out of everything. So instead of having healthy pollinators and predatory insects eating the errant pest insect, there's a sterile petri dish that anything can come along and infect, requiring constant monitoring and more interventions.
We permaculturalists like polycultures, both on the small scale, as seen with square-foot
gardening techniques and companion planting, or in intermixed market-garden-style block-plantings strategically placed so that they benefit one another, or in food forests, where every trophic level is filled. We also like multi-speciation, for flexibility and resilience in the face of uncertain climate and weather conditions.
One tool in the permacultural toolbox with much history in western Europe is the idea of livestock-tight living fencing, or hedgerows. These provide a barrier to dessicating winds, food and
shelter for pollinators and predatory insect and bird species, and in some cases even a crop themselves.
If I were set on using existing equipment, I would see if it were possible to make crop alleys the width of that equipment, with food forest-type hedgerows on-contour in between these crop lanes. That way, not only could I still have crops, the texture of the
land would increase water infiltration, reduce wind dessication, and would let me plant different crops in adjacent rows, to add to the scent profile distraction work of the hedgerows.
As to specific species, for a truly permacultural crop, I would look to something that is
perennial, and if it can be harvested more than once a season, more the better. Perennial grain crops are the holy grail in that sphere, because one of the biggest problems with broad-acre conventional agriculture, including conventional organic broad-acre agriculture, is the fact that much of it requires fields to be tilled and disked into airborne powder like seven times a season. Not only does that tend to kill off the whole soil microbiome and anything worm-sized or bigger living in it, too, but it makes it really hard to retain precious topsoil if you lose a bunch of it every time you sneeze, let alone if the wind picks up.
It depends largely on what you want to do. But you can't go wrong if you're choosing minimal till except for establishment, and no-till for maintenance, perennials and self-seeding annuals over crops that need to be seeded annually, if you utilise land-shaping methods to increase rain water infiltration, reduce dessication, and if you mulch to keep the soil living.
But spitball for us. Give us some idea of what kind of thing you're looking to do with your land. There's almost always a permacultural approach that can be looked into. It's easier for us to offer helpful advice if we're tweaking ideas you're already trying to implement.
Great question, though. One of the best for the advancement of
permaculture. Keep us posted, and good luck!
-CK
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
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