Episode 112: Transforming Arid Landscapes with Taimur Malik

Taimur Malik founded Drawdown Farm, a regenerative farm in the Thal desert in Pakistan. Taimur engages in various regenerative agriculture practices, including planting diverse crops like bananas, implementing managed grazing trials, and using impact sprinkler systems powered by solar energy. Taimur emphasizes the importance of biological solutions and sustainable farming techniques to improve soil health, increase yields, and mitigate environmental impacts. His innovative approaches, such as using biologicals and adopting holistic land management practices, demonstrate his commitment to improving agriculture.
In this episode, Taimur and John discuss:
Creating healthy soil in desert sands
Weed management in poor-quality soils
Johnson-Su compost, vermiculture, and living mulches
Creating higher yields in sugar cane production
The benefits of intercropping and diversification
The impacts of livestock integration and managed grazing
The economic benefits of regenerative agriculture from reduced input costs and increased crop resilience
Additional Resources To learn more about Drawdown Farm, please visit: www.drawdownfarm.com
About John Kempf John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.
Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition - a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology.
Support For This Show & Helping You Grow Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture.
AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA’s science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most.
AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits.
Beyond working on the ground with growers, AEA leads in regenerative agriculture media and education, producing and distributing the popular and highly-regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, inspiring webinars, and other educational content that serve as go-to resources for growers worldwide.
Learn more about AEA’s regenerative programs and products: www.advancingecoag.com
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VIDEO: To learn more from John Kempf about regenerative agriculture, watch this conversation between John and three AEA grower partners about how regenerative agriculture is changing lives and conventional farming: • How regenerative agric...

[@peter.knupffer]

Taimur needs to be interviewed more. John's biggest fan is a man people need to hear ! His passion is so inspiring.

[@stevenglisson7614]

Love people who study agriculture religiously and implement what works ….Thats being a steward of the land!

[@James-ol2fr]

Thank you for bringing this farmer to our attention! What an enlightening conversation! -Kat

[@marynunn1708]

Another “drink from a firehose” episode! Wow. Such passion, scope, insight and accomplishments. Bullseye podcast to you both!

[@armandobambino]

fantastic!!!!!

[@regenerativegardeningwithpatti]

Very good, and so exciting to learn from a very new perspective. Love Taimur energy, passion, and going-for-it attitude. I can hardly wait to hear what they can get done with the drone sprayer. Thank you John enjoy your conversation almost every day! Keep up the wonderful work.

[@anthonycopacetic5016]

Because of John i can grow all the brassicas with zero chemicals. That includes kales with no aphids or whiteflies and no black rot.

[@joshuafinch9192]

At 49 minutes, Taimur mentions a type of compost. He is referring to SPIC, sometimes also called SPICE composting: static pile inoculated composted [extension].

[@david.bull.]

He doesn't mention the name of the guy who does the webinar. Do you know it or how to find that webinar?

[@joshuafinch9192]

@@david.bull. there's no way to know for sure, but my intuition says either Gerry Gillespie or Jim Ristau. Probably the former. Both are featured in some longer videos here on KZbin

[@david.bull.]

@@joshuafinch9192 my initial search didn't find anything but eventually I dId find some content with Gerry Gillespie that I'm watching now.

[@mimibergerac7792]

Came to hear about arid landscape farming, learned nice things are possible if you actually are not arid but have irrigation water available.

[@swinkeymo]

A better description is arid sandy soils with irrigation.

[@dennistaylor3796]

Geoff Lawton "greening the desert found out that mushrooms locked up salt so it didn't affect the plants.

[@credenza1]

I have been trying unsuccessfully to get a cover crop going in some very poor sandy soil in a dry climate. Listening to this podcast made me think about using pigface (Carpobrotos) as a first approximation, just to get something growing. It is incredibly hardy and resilient and produces a lot of matter with no intervention, as well as collecting water. As long as it is controllable, it may be a useful tactic. Does anyone have any experience of this?

[@pawanpreetsinghdhillon8058]

Amazing podcast especially as Im farming in a similar environment as Taimur in the Indian punjab so can relate to a lot of the stuff, looking forward to a lot more and would love to get Taimurs email if possible to exchange some ideas

[@inigomontoya8943]

Makes you question the reason for so much turf grass in areas with good amounts of rainfall.

[@jackmarsh2730]

[@Zachs-]

You should buy and hold tech stock Crypto investment

[@Coldwellbanker.drive3]

There are many interesting stocks in many industries that you might follow. You don't have to act on every forecast, so I'll suggest that you work with a financial advisor who can help you choose the best times to purchase and sell the shares or ETFs you want to acquire

[@ramonstudios1233]

You should know it's easy and hard to make that much profit. I say EASY because it's very possible to make that much, and Hard because you'll need professional assistance to do it, I'd suggest you get assisted by a market advisor.

[@david.d.calvache5082]

I'm an advocate for having a diverse investment strategy. I grew to a 5 figure mark with my portfolio having exposure to different areas of the market, including small and large-caps of the ETF index, blue chip stocks, coins, grade bonds and alternatives like cryptocurrency markets, as this helps manage the overall risk on my portfolio managed by my FA.. Credits to my adviser, Jasper, i have no doubt investing more

[@akunyoutube09]

Please can you leave the info of your investment advisor here? I'm in dire need for one!!

[@henrykuyvenhoven2542]

Hi, I'm doubting the value of a comment but perhaps the collective numbers of comments seems to make the podcast important. Please follow me for a minute or two. Rembrandt died in al.ost poverty. Mozart was not different. Leonardo da Vinci's wealth like the others was not in currency. Humans put a value on a person's mind but really,... in the time period that a genius is living please tell me 5 people who were able to financially excel? This period of 2000 years has not really supported genius, please recognize that and allow the change to come now! I am a gardener and farmer. I love what John Kempf is doing. The roses bloom in spring and summer regardlessly and some varieties keep blooming into the winter here in Germany. That's a metaphor for individuals. Some people retire at the age of 60, but they also retire their reasoning abilities. I am "HE", who encourages " Teaching an old dog tricks,"! Well if you personally believe that you are never to old to learn or you learn something every single day, well how about today and after you are 60 years old?