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Sustainable Soils Management Course with Paul Taylor, at the PRI Australias Zaytuna Farm, NSW, Australia

Starts Sep 16, 2013 and runs for 5 day(s).

Note: This course is not organised and run by The Permaculture Research Institute. It is facilitated by another organisaton and meets the high teaching standards required by the Permaculture Institue.

Participants will have an on ground and classroom understanding of beneficial soil biology that can radically reduce costs while increasing soil fertility and potential productivity.

In this workshop, we redefine sustainable agriculture as 'the ability to improve production while we reduce cost and improve soil fertility'. Learn a 3-part system as the path forward to improving your productive soils.

This course is a specialist course and is part of the 10-week Internship Program, but can be attended as a separate course.

Paul Taylor was raised on an organic farm and has been working with sustainable soil management for more than 30 years. Paul demystifies the complex sciences of soil microbiology and plant nutrition to bring you a cutting edge system of sustainable soil management.

1. Specialist composting made easy: Trust Nature's Bio-vital system
2. Making soil pro-biotic - soil microbiology made simple
3. Making cost effective Bio-Fertilisers: COAS principles from Eugenio Gras and much more.

1-2-3- Grow!

Learn how to combine these 3 cost effective methodologies, to reduce costs and achieve sustainable soil management.

In this 5-day course we take the mystery out of soil microbiology, plant nutrition and 'organics' and learn how to combine methods to improve soil fertility, reduce input costs and improve production. These management principles apply to the backyard garden as well as the broad acre farm.

Sustainable Soil Management means that we depend on natural processes to improve production while we build soil fertility and reduce cost. We believe that the principles of sustainable soil management is the path forward for giving agriculture the tools needed to rebuild degraded soils.

What is soil? Soil is that living stuff that gives us our daily bread; soil is alive and productive and has a remarkable complexity. As humanity expands the need for vital soils becomes an ever-important focus of sustainability and food sovereignty, vital soils grow vital foods that grow vital communities.

We have the science, knowledge and experience to change how we manage the land, how we responsibly manage waste as a resource and how we build soil fertility while we improve production; this course redefines how we look at soil management.

In this workshop we redefine 'sustainable agriculture' and learn the tools we need for soil regeneration so that we can be responsible for our vital food and achieve on-farm profitability. The science of soil, soil organisms and plant nutrition is a complex one; here Paul demystifies these sciences and offers real, practical soil-utions to our growing issues.

Specialist composting made easy: The Bio-vital approach

We learn how to turn common waste products into high value compost with 'specialist composting made easy'. We teach how to best use specialist compost to improve soil fertility as 'easy to understand, realistic to apply' systems. Here we learn how to make and manage high quality compost for fun and profit.

One of the primary benefits of quality compost that it is rich in microorganisms. We need soil microorganisms in high diversity to restore the soil food web where natural processes reduce input costs and support nutrient cycling.

Specialist compost (Bio-Vital) has all the benefits of good compost, rich in organic matter, rich in plant nutrients but has the additional benefit of having soil microorganisms in high diversity, to act as a powerful as a soil inoculant. It is the organisms in high diversity that give us the range of benefits needed to achieve sustainable agriculture and sequester soil carbon.

Soil Pro-biotic: a simple to manage, easy to under system for building soil fertility.

During this workshop we have the hands on experience of growing soil microorganisms as soil pro-biotic and look at the dynamic results under a microscope.

'Compost tea' is commonly misunderstood and mismanaged, Trust Nature's Bio-Vital system has chosen to rename specialist 'compost tea' as 'soil pro-biotic' as this makes the point of difference between the understanding and misunderstanding of the value and management of soil organisms. Just as we might use a spoonful of yogurt to inoculate a litre of milk, we use specialist compost as the source of soil microbes and as the inoculant for making soil pro-biotic.

When we don't have enough high quality compost we can still grow the organisms we need to support our productive systems and build our soil fertility. We learn how to grow soil microorganisms as soil pro-biotic, as an easy to understand system. Paul teaches simple processes for growing 'hundreds of thousands' of microorganisms into 'thousands of millions' to spray out on our productive crops.

Soil microorganisms play an essential role in building soil fertility and protecting productive plants, learn how to manage soil microorganisms, build the soil food web and establish nutrient cycling as a management cornerstone for sustainable agriculture. We take the mystery out of soil microbiology and take advantage of natural processes; soil organisms work 24 hours a day 7 days a week to improve your soils and support production. Learn the how, when and why of soil microbiology made simple.

Bio-Fertilisers: Making your own fertilisers for pennies a litre.

We all need to be able to amend our productive systems with good fertilisers, the cost of good organic fertilisers is increasing annually, here we learn how to make powerful organic fertiliser for pennies a litre so that we can reduce input costs while we improve production and profitability.

During this workshop we have the hands on experience of making powerful bio-fertilisers from commonly available materials, we learn how to make our own organic fertilisers for a fraction of the cost of what we pay at the shop. Bio-fertilisers help to maintain production while we reduce costs, an all-important feature of sustainable management; we consider this essential knowledge for the backyard, for the broad acre and for food sovereignty.


About the Teacher:

Paul Taylor has Australian Federal Government FarmReady approval as an educator, is a recognized permaculture teacher and organic soil management specialist and has completed his Certificate IV in Education, Training and Assessment, qualifying him as an educator under the Australian Federal Government VET (Vocational Education and Training) guidelines. Paul has worked extensively as a consultant and educator in Australia, India, the Middle East and the U.S.A.

For more on Paul and the main thrust of the course, go here.

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Important information about this course

Pricing options

All prices are in Australian dollars. The fee for the course is $1100, including GST, meals and camping accommodation. A non-refundable $110 deposit is required at the time of the booking. The balance of $990 is due before the course start date. An early bird discount of 10% is available if the course fee is paid 42 days prior to the course start date.

How to Pay: You can pay via Paypal, credit card, direct bank deposit or cheque. Click here for details.

***Accommodation and other Details***

Information on directions, accommodation/facilities and Visas can be found here.

The camping charge of $20 per night and the food charge of $50 per day (breakfast, morning and afternoon tea, lunch and dinner), is included in the tuition charge.

For further information for this course please contact education@permaculturenews.org.

Course pricing / bookings

Prices in Australian dollars

$110	(Full price deposit to lock in booking)
$1100	(Full Price. Due before the course start date)
$990	(Early bird price for those who pay in full at least 6 weeks prior to course commencement)