Cho Han-kyu
Korean Natural Farming — collecting the microbes already living on a site and multiplying them into inputs, instead of buying any.
The record
- Standing
- foundational work
- Years
- died 2025
- Based
- Janong Natural Farming Institute · South Korea
- Also published as
- Han Kyu Cho
- The principle
- Site-specific indigenous microorganisms, cultured from readily available plant and animal by-products, in place of purchased fertiliser — increasing the diversity and population density of beneficial organisms already present.
- Scope
- Crop management and livestock production, including the deep-litter waste systems the method is known for.
- Published
- The Korean Natural Farming concepts were set out in 1997, drawing on long-standing sustainable practice in Korea, Japan and China.
- The school
- Founded the Natural Farming Life School and Research Farm in 1995; in 2008 it was renamed the Janong Natural Farming Institute. It is reported to have trained more than 18,000 people.
Standing is this studio’s placement of the work, not a ranking of the person, and it is the one line here that is a judgement rather than a cited fact.
The work
Korean Natural Farming inverts the input question. Rather than manufacturing a consortium and shipping it, the grower goes into the nearest undisturbed ground with cooked rice, collects whatever colonises it, and propagates that — on the argument that organisms already living within walking distance are already adapted to the site’s climate, its pH and its residues.
The rest of the system is a set of preparations built the same way: fermented plant juice, fish amino acid, lactic acid bacteria serum, water-soluble calcium from eggshell or bone. All of them are made from material a farm already has and would otherwise be paying to remove.
The livestock side is the part that surprises people. The deep-litter systems built on the same inoculants are why KNF pig housing is claimed to run without odour, and it is where waste stops being waste in the most literal sense. The University of Hawai’i’s extension service has published the protocols as tested, citable documents, which is the most useful way into the method for anyone who wants to run it rather than read about it.
He died in January 2025. Reported ages vary between the tributes, so this record gives the year and not an age.
Where to read them
- How to Cultivate Indigenous Microorganisms (BIO-9, PDF) — University of Hawai’i CTAHR The IMO protocol, written as a procedure.
- Natural Farming: Fermented Plant Juice (SA-7, PDF) — University of Hawai’i CTAHR
- Natural Farming: The Development of Indigenous Microorganisms (SA-19, PDF) — University of Hawai’i CTAHR
Sources for this record
- How to Cultivate Indigenous Microorganisms (BIO-9) — University of Hawai’i CTAHR
- Indigenous Microorganism 4 (IMO 4) as a Soil Inoculant — University of Hawai’i
- Growing a greener future: Hawaiʻi CC teaches Korean natural farming — University of Hawaiʻi System News
- In Memoriam: Master Cho Han-Kyu — Fermented Farm
- Master Han-Kyu Cho — Korean Natural Farming, permies.com discussion thread
- Korean Natural Farming: Master Cho biography — Garden Culture Magazine
Corrections
This record was assembled from the sources above, and nothing in it was inferred to fill a gap. If it is about you and it is wrong, or you would rather not be listed, write and it changes.