The method is based upon sustainable resource use, deep soil preparation, close plant spacing, compost, diversity and companion planting and whole system awareness. The goals of biointensive farms is to recycle all nutrients, grow compost crops to build and maintain a healthy soil, provide nutritious food for people, and integrate fibre crops and trees into the farm, without excessive reliance on fossil fuels, machinery and high capital inputs.
Biointensive gardening is not disruptive of the natural recycling of the soil's resource base. The backyard bio-intensive system offers a low-cost/no-cost, ecologically-sound sustainable techniques to household-level food security.
2. In contrast to the typical USA family farm of 200 hectares which nets an annual farm income of approximately US$13,000, biointensive economic mini-farms report incomes of $5,000 to $200,000 per year from land of size 0.05 to 0.2 hectares.