Knowledge Exchange

KE-028 · Advisory · Learning PQNK

The Five Stages of Learning: From Information to Wisdom

An illustrated advisory on learning PQNK as a journey in which each stage prepares the farmer for the next. Information comes by reading and listening: papers, books, videos, experienced farmers and group discussion. Knowledge comes by seeing the system actually work: crops, soil and roots in the field, compared results and farmers already applying it. Experience comes by doing it yourself, preferably on a small area with your own soil, water, tools and conditions, making mistakes and solving problems until knowledge becomes skill and confidence. Understanding comes when soil, plants, water, biodiversity, climate and productivity are seen as one living production ecosystem, with cause and effect clear enough to decide well when conditions change. Wisdom, the fifth stage, is knowing what to do, when to do it and when not to interfere: an insect seen is not automatically a reason to spray, a dry surface not automatically a reason to irrigate, a changing plant not automatically a reason to add fertiliser. Sometimes the ecosystem is already correcting itself, and wisdom also carries the responsibility to share experience and guide those who follow.

KE-027 · Field Evidence · Sugarcane

Sugarcane on PQNK: 2,800 Maunds (112 Tonnes) per Acre

Field footage of a mature PQNK sugarcane crop being harvested from a residue-covered field, with the stalks cut and the trash left on the ground. The video's summary slide states a yield of 2,800 maunds (about 112 tonnes) per acre grown without fertiliser or pesticides, against 600 to 1,000 maunds for conventional sugarcane with high input costs, together with over 80 percent water saving, no tillage and 44 percent higher sugar recovery, and credits Al-Noor Sugar Mills, Sindh. It is the documented result behind the 2,800-maund figure in Chapters Five and Thirty-Seven of the PQNK book.

KE-026 · Q&A + Advisory · Saline soils and high-TDS irrigation water

Can High-TDS Water Rehabilitate Saline Soils? The PQNK Salt Equation

An illustrated explainer on whether groundwater with high total dissolved solids can be used for crops on saline or alkaline soil. It argues that the limiting factor is not the salt concentration alone but what happens to the salts after the water enters the soil. Under conventional flood irrigation, poor infiltration, surface evaporation, capillary rise and a hardpan leave salts concentrated in the root zone. PQNK conversion breaks the hardpan to about 22 inches, gives a deep water wash (with acid where soil pH is high), forms permanent raised beds and grows a Jantar cover crop; the mature system keeps the soil covered and the root zone moist and aerated. Because the salt load equals concentration multiplied by the volume of water applied, far less irrigation water means far less salt entering the field. The ten-step transition protocol is summarised, and the conclusion is that high-TDS water is not automatically the enemy: poor water and soil management is the greater problem.

KE-025 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · High-density orchard

Laying Out a High-Density Orchard on a Four-Year PQNK Field: Mian Arfan Khalid, Rajanpur

Speaking on camera in front of freshly shaped raised beds, the farmer explains that his plot has been under PQNK for about four years. This season he re-laid the beds, not because they had failed to mature, but to plan a systematic high-density orchard: the earlier one-acre plots watered from a central channel have become straight two-acre plots across a six to eight acre belt, fed directly from a lined water channel. Mustard has been sown as an intercrop, and the orchard will be planted next with reduced plant-to-plant and row-to-row spacing, laid out so that picking and transport stay easy. He reports that the farm has become a model in his area that other farmers visit to learn from, and describes PQNK as farming without fertiliser or chemicals.

Mian Arfan Khalid · Rajanpur

KE-024 · Field Evidence · Soybean

Soybean on PQNK Raised Beds: No Inputs but the Seed and Two Furrow Waterings

Field footage of a dense, even soybean crop growing on PQNK permanent raised beds, with the canopy closing over the beds and the furrows still visible between them. As reported by Asif Sharif, the crop received no input other than the seed and two supplementary flows of water through the furrows: no fertiliser, no pesticide and no other purchased input. It is a legume grown on the living, covered soil of the permanent beds, relying on the field's own biology for its nutrition. No yield is reported yet.

KE-023 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Rice

Rice on PQNK Raised Beds — First Crop With No Puddling or Fertiliser

Field footage of a standing PQNK paddy crop on raised beds, followed by the farmer's own voice report and an English reading of it. After attending the PQNK training in Lahore, he and a fellow farmer from his village decided to introduce PQNK on their farms, and this rice is their first result. His partner has been associated with PQNK since 2018 and had already run small-scale PQNK trials with satisfactory results. The crop was grown without puddling (kaddu) and, the farmer reports, with no fertiliser at all: no DAP and no urea. The crop was still standing ahead of harvest, drawing a steady stream of neighbouring farmers asking how it was grown. No yield is reported yet.

KE-022 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Sesame

Sesame Between Ber (Jujube) Rows on PQNK — Farmer from Nepal

The PQNK farmer in Nepal whose papaya field appears in KE-018 shows sesame (til) grown between rows of ber (jujube) trees. The land was first shaped into raised beds and mulched, then the ber was planted with 20 feet between rows, leaving three beds between each tree row, which were sown with sesame. The plants are compact rather than tall and flowering well, with three to four branches each carrying pods along their length. A small conventional plot grown alongside as a comparison shows visible crop problems, while the PQNK beds show none. He values sesame as an easily grown oilseed and a good dietary source of calcium, and says the same guided approach is being applied to papaya, ber, guava and mango on the farm.

Nepal

KE-021 · Field Evidence · One Acre Prosperity

One Acre Prosperity Model on PQNK — Fruit Tree Biodiversity

A field walkthrough of the fruit-tree component of the One Acre Prosperity model under PQNK, moving between nectarine, guava, date, lemon and peach trees at different growth and fruiting stages within the same managed plot. The clip illustrates the perennial fruit layer of the OAP design described in the PQNK book's Closed-Loop Farm chapter, showing several species carrying fruit simultaneously on the same acre rather than a single-crop planting.

KE-020 · Field Evidence · Gladiolus

Gladiolus on PQNK — Early September Planting and Germination

A field update on gladiolus grown under PQNK, planted on 5 September, roughly a month earlier than the previous practice of planting only after October. Germination is described as excellent, with strong leaf colour and growth achieved before any irrigation was given. Planting density was also substantially increased over previous seasons, from a single row on one side of the bed to four rows spanning both sides, including the bed top. A small patch left without mulch after wind disturbed it shows patchier emergence than the surrounding mulched area, illustrating mulch’s role in even germination.

KE-019 · Field Evidence + Machinery Demonstration · SIPP / Precision Planting

SIPP in Operation — Planting in a Matured Crop

A short field clip of the SIPP (Slit Insertion Precision Planter) operating in a bed where the standing crop has already matured, placing seed through the existing crop and residue without disturbing it — a practical demonstration of the crop-in-crop, no-till planting capability described in the PQNK machinery chapters.

KE-018 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Papaya

Papaya on PQNK — Farmer from Nepal

A papaya farmer in Nepal explains how organic mulch on PQNK raised beds gives soil microbes both an organic-matter food source and a place to live, keeps the soil under the mulch noticeably cooler than the exposed surface, and lets roots breathe rather than sitting waterlogged. He contrasts this with chemical-input farming, where poison compounds poison and nutrition quality suffers, arguing that leaving the soil's own biological system alone lets it do its own work — protecting the soil ecosystem, he says, ultimately protects people too.

Nepal

KE-017 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Citrus (Lemon)

Citrus (Lemon) on PQNK — No Agrochemicals, Farmer's Best Result Yet

A farmer in a lemon-growing belt reports that most growers around him are spraying pesticide heavily against recurring pest and disease pressure, while his own PQNK crop has had no spray applied at all. He describes this season's result as the best he has ever seen — better even than last year's already strong result.

KE-016 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Peanut (Groundnut)

Peanut on PQNK — Mulch Keeps Water Off the Bed in Heavy Monsoon Rain

A farmer's own field demonstration during a heavy monsoon downpour: on PQNK beds with mulch — peanut, cucumber and tomato — a footstep on the bed stays firm and water does not rise onto the surface, while on unmulched beds, including an unmulched section of the same peanut plot, water climbs the bed and the soil gives way underfoot. The farmer credits the mulch layer and the retained root network of prior crops for holding the bed together, and thanks Asif Sharif directly for the technique.

KE-015 · Advisory + Field Evidence · Mango

Mango on PQNK in Saline Waterlogged Soil

Raised beds under PQNK accelerate tree growth even in hard, saline and alkaline soils prone to waterlogging. Once the beds are formed, the irrigation water level does not reach the soil surface for weeks at a time — excess water moves off into the drains, and only the roots draw the moisture the tree needs.

KE-014 · Media Coverage + Farmer Testimony

PQNK Crosses the Border: Kutchmitra Newspaper Coverage, Kutch, Gujarat, India

Kutchmitra, a regional Gujarati-language newspaper published in Bhuj, ran a special interview feature on PQNK's introduction into Kutch, India, under the headline “Complete Natural Regenerative Farming ‘PQNK’ Initiative in Kutch – India.” The piece profiles farmer Deepakbhai BhanuShali, who is practising PQNK in Nakhatrana under Kutch's difficult rainfall, water and soil conditions, and explains the system's no-till, minimum-disturbance approach and its use of raised beds and furrows to balance soil moisture and aeration under water scarcity. The coverage documents PQNK's first reported field adoption outside Pakistan, where the system was developed.

Deepakbhai BhanuShali · Nakhatrana, Kutch, Gujarat, India

KE-013 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Amla (aonla) on rolling land

Amla on PQNK on Rolling Land

A PQNK farmer's field report on an amla (aonla) plantation established on rolling land using a contour-line layout — grown rainfed with no irrigation, no agrochemicals and no tillage.

KE-012 · Advisory + Field Evidence · Hardpan & soil aeration

The Role of Hardpan, Nematodes, and Aeration in Plant Health

Asif Sharif explains how the Farmer Advisory guidance on the compaction hardpan, nematode activity, and soil aeration played out in the field — a confirmation of how the advisory worked in practice.

KE-011 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Citrus (Kinnow)

Citrus Under PQNK — No Agrochemicals Applied

Citrus performing under PQNK with no agrochemical inputs applied.

KE-010 · Q&A + Advisory

A Question on Natural Ecosystem Science

Brought a question on the Natural Ecosystem Science of Production Agriculture directly to our farmer WhatsApp group — answered as part of our ongoing advisory support.

KE-009 · Q&A + Advisory

Crop Light Requirements Under PQNK

Raised detailed questions on crop light requirements under PQNK, answered directly by our advisory team.

KE-008 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Citrus (Kinnow)

Citrus on PQNK

Citrus on PQNK, documented on his own orchard.

KE-007 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Wheat

Wheat on PQNK

Wheat on PQNK — lowest cost of production, highest quality.

KE-006 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence

PQNK Results

Reports on his own PQNK results and adoption.

KE-005 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Vegetables

Vegetables on PQNK

High-nutrition, high-density vegetables produced under PQNK.

KE-004 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Mango & Citrus

Mango & Citrus Recovery on PQNK

Citrus recovery on PQNK — bringing a declining orchard back to health.

KE-003 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Citrus (Kinnow)

Citrus on PQNK

Citrus on PQNK, documented on our own orchard.

KE-002 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Guava

Guava on PQNK — Mian Arfan Khalid, Rajanpur

Guava on PQNK — high-density planting, three years without a single chemical input, and market shelf life stretched from two days to two weeks.

Mian Arfan Khalid · Rajanpur

KE-001 · Farmer Testimony + Field Evidence · Wheat

Wheat on PQNK

Wheat on PQNK — lowest cost of production, highest quality.