Dr.Teruo Higa’s
Living A Dream

EARTH University in Costa Rica and EM Research Organization carried out EM projects throughout Latin America from 1999 to 2014. During this period, their collaborative research played a vital role in shaping the future of agriculture. The EARTH University’s mission statement--“To develop agriculture in Central and South America it is essential to train and retain cutting-edge technicians who have a strong sense of mission"--matches the goal of "an Earth-saving revolution" promoted by EMRO, and the results of the collaboration between the two have steadily reached fruition. During this collaborative project, EM Research Organization sent visiting professors and integrated various EM based programs into the university’s curriculum.

This system is now firmly established and is being passed on to the next generation, and steady progress is being made in realizing the goals that were initially set forth.

Earth University is a private agricultural university established to develop agriculture in Latin America. As a rule, graduates are expected to work in the primary industry, and not become civil servants. Education is focused on sustainable agriculture, but until the introduction of EM, organic farming was the main focus.

Initially, there was limited understanding of EM technology within the university, but this changed dramatically when results were achieved in banana cultivation, Costa Rica’s main export crop, in combating disease-causing pests, and in dealing with crop residues. Since then, program graduates with a thorough understanding of EM technology have spread this technology throughout Central and South America and are active in the field of agriculture in each region.  (Source: “New ・Living a Dream” #17 EM Festa in Central America by Professor Teruo Higa of Meio University)

In 2008, in the Huaraz region, located in northern Peru at an attitude of over 3,000 meters, a couple who graduated from Earth University spearheaded a project to help poor farmers achieve self-reliance through the use of EM. Their efforts to treat organic waste from households with EM and solve agricultural, environmental, and health problems at the same time were highly appreciated. This movement developed into a collaborative partnership with the Poor Farmers Support Organization under the Ministry of Agriculture and has already expanded to some 400,000 households nationwide that are using EM.
A lecture on EM was also held at Peru’s prestigious National University of Agricultural Sciences, La Molina, and interest in EM has grown among academics and policy makers as well.

In 2012, a model of circular agriculture combining dairy farming and crop production began at the T.T. SAYURI farm in Huaral, central Peru. This farm utilizes activated EM and BIOL (their own homemade brand of liquid fertilizer) to grow corn and cotton, maintain the health of dairy cows, and produce compost in an integrated manner. As a result, they have achieved stable harvests without the use of any chemical fertilizers, and the incidence of mastitis has dropped from 10% to 3%. They have also achieved results such as cost reductions and quality improvements, making this a concrete example that proves the practical utility of EM. Source: “Sustainable Dairy Farm/EM GROUP JAPAN” 

In 2023, a project on tomato cultivation using EM technology was awarded in a competition organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In this project, Peruvian farmers used EM to regenerate degraded soil and achieve stable tomato production while sustainably managing water resources. The person who proposed the project, Mr. Francis Reyes Lainez of BIOEM S.A.C., shared examples not only from Peru but also from Brazil, Chile, and other countries, pointing the way toward sustainable agriculture in the whole of Latin America. This award has brought EM technology to the attention of the international community. The following is a summarized Japanese translation of an article from AGROPERU Informa that provides background and the significance of the FAO’s recognition of a Peruvian tomato farming project that utilizes EM.

Source: “AGROPERU Informa No. 46 ”
EM® Technology stands out in FAO’s global competition

EM Technology in the spotlight at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) world competition.
Nine Peruvian Projects, including BIOEM S.A.C.’s project, have been awarded in a world competition organized by FAO.
In 2023, nine projects from Peru were selected as winners among the thirty-two winning projects in the "Good practices for the sustainable management of soil and water" competition organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). One of these projects is “Sustainable measures for regenerating degraded soils in South American tomato farms using EM Technology,” proposed by Mr. Francis Reyes Lainez, Technical Development manager of BIOEM S.A.C. The objective of the project is to promote sustainable production systems and ensure food security while focusing on soil health and integrated management of water resources.

Mr. Reyes Lainez’s project is dedicated to the regeneration of degraded soils, with particular emphasis on the sustainable management of tomato cultivation, sharing the experiences and achievements of farmers in Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Peru. As a result of this award for the EM Technology application project, the content of the project will be edited and compiled by FAO into a publication that will be widely disseminated throughout the world. The results also demonstrate the importance of innovative EM technology to help regenerate degraded soils, as well as its potential in Latin America in promoting sustainable management of natural resources and food security.
Eighty-eight projects were submitted to this competition and underwent a rigorous evaluation process by eleven judging organizations. This award demonstrates the participants’ strong commitment to sustainable and responsible agriculture. “The use of probiotics is the future of regenerative agriculture," Mr. Reyes Lainez’s emphasized, adding that, "The environment contains millions of microorganisms that have the potential to regenerate degraded soils,”

In Peru today educational and research institutions such as the Universidad Agricultura de Peru, as well as many other agriculture-related organizations, are actively promoting the use of EM. Thanks to a long-standing partnership with Earth University, EM technology is now moving beyond the practical stage to take root in institutions and education, from supporting farmers to dairy farming to soil improvement. Efforts centered on EM in Peru are taking shape as a new social model that creates a virtuous cycle of food, health, and the environment, with primary industry as its starting point.

It takes time and trust from people for a technology to take root in the field, become an accepted part of the system, and become a force that supports people’s lives. The progress of EM in Peru can be described as the accumulation of such quiet and steady changes. The social model of good circulation based on agriculture gives us an important hint about how we should think about a sustainable future.

Related article: EM CASE SUDIES, EM GROUP JAPAN Creating a society using EM, Effective Microorganisms. 

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