Agriculture: Wisdom of the Uncivilized Crowds

Picture this: A remote Indian village in the Ganges delta a few hundred years ago. The farmer starts his day by letting his flock of ducks into his irrigated fields. The water from the river brings with it, besides nutrients and alluvium, some unwanted (for the crops) pests too. But that is not a problem–the ducks will keep the pests in control. Not only that, they will turn those pests into manure and drop it right inside the pool of collected water to be anaerobically decomposed under the water.

Maybe the farmer doesn’t realize it and thinks the Sun god and Nature goddesses are helping him. But that’s just a coincidence that’s helping him continue his ways. They worship the arrival of the stork–which, by the way, even the Japanese and Chinese do. Coincidence? (I’m willing to bet Mexicans do that too!) There are still pockets in India where people’s lifestyles are frozen in time and haven’t changed much.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6166