Skip to content
Terra Humana Foundation Logo
Terra Humana
ENDEIT
Designing with permaculture

Obtain a yield

Terra Humana editorial teamLast updated: 2026-10-167 min read

A sunlit layered food forest in late summer with ripe papayas, figs and citrus above mulched ground

In brief

The third of Holmgren's twelve permaculture principles: make sure the work brings real rewards, early and along the way, in food, materials, knowledge and joy.

What the principle says

Obtain a yield is the third of the twelve design principles of David Holmgren. After the patience of observing and the foresight of storing comes a down-to-earth demand: the work must pay. A garden, a farm or a project should bring back rewards that are truly useful to the people who tend it, and it should do so early and along the way, not only at some distant point when everything is finished.

The principle can be read as a guard against two opposite failures. One is the design that is beautiful on paper and admirable in theory but feeds no one, so that its makers grow tired and give up. The other is the yield taken at the expense of the system itself: a harvest that strips the soil, empties the store built up under the previous principle and leaves the land poorer each year. A real yield, in the spirit of the principle, comes from a system that stays healthy while it gives.

Yield is meant broadly. Food is the most visible part, but wood, fibre, mulch, medicinal and aromatic plants, seed, shade, income, skills, knowledge and beauty are yields as well. So are the friendships that form around shared work. Counting all the yields of an element often changes its value entirely. A hedge that seems to give only a few berries may also break the wind, shelter birds, feed bees, supply prunings for mulch and mark a boundary.

Obtain a yieldLearning panel on principle 3 of 12: Obtain a yield. Proverb: you can’t work on an empty stomach. What the work gives back: work and care go into a system that stays healthy while it gives. Out come food, meaning fruit, vegetables and herbs; materials, meaning wood, fibre and mulch; knowledge and joy, meaning skills, beauty and friendships. The yield comes early and along the way, not only at the end: fast plants in the first years, shrubs a little later, trees for decades. What to watch for: start with something that bears quickly while the slow trees grow. Count all the yields of an element; a hedge may also break the wind, feed bees and supply mulch. No yield at the expense of the system: do not strip the soil or empty the store. Look for elements whose yields feed each other. In the TerraWiki the principle works in the food forest, polyculture, the plant guild, syntropic agriculture, compost and the herb spiral. TERRAWIKI · LEARNING PANEL · PRINCIPLE 3 OF 12 Obtain a yield Proverb: “You can’t work on an empty stomach” 3 1WHAT THE WORK GIVES BACK Work and care a system that stayshealthy while it gives Food fruit, vegetables, herbs Materials wood, fibre, mulch Knowledge and joy skills, beauty,friendships Early and along the way, not only at the end first years fast plants a little later shrubs for decades trees 2WHAT TO WATCH FOR Start with something that bears quicklywhile the slow trees growCount all the yields of an element: a hedge may alsobreak the wind, feed bees and supply mulchNo yield at the expense of the system:do not strip the soil or empty the storeLook for elements whose yields feed each other 3WHERE IT WORKS IN THE TERRAWIKI Food forestPolyculturePlant guildSyntropic agricultureCompostHerb spiral Basis: David Holmgren, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (2002)

The old saying: you can't work on an empty stomach

Holmgren pairs this principle with the proverb you can't work on an empty stomach. It is the plainest of his twelve sayings, and perhaps the most human. People need immediate rewards to keep going. A plan that promises abundance in twenty years but gives nothing this season asks more than most people can give.

The proverb also explains why good designs start with something that bears quickly. Annual vegetables, herbs, fast pioneer plants and a few early fruits give a return while the slow trees grow. Each small harvest is not only food. It is encouragement, and it keeps the people who care for the land in a living relationship with it.

How it looks in nature

In nature every living thing must obtain a yield or vanish. A plant that spends more sugar on its leaves and roots than those leaves and roots earn back will not survive the next drought. A fox that runs further for its prey than the prey is worth will starve. Natural selection is, among other things, a long test of which ways of living return more than they cost.

Many of the most successful arrangements in nature are exchanges in which both sides gain. Flowers pay pollinators with nectar and pollen and receive the transport of their own pollen in return. In mycorrhiza, plants give sugar to fungi in their roots, and the fungi pay with water and phosphorus drawn from pores no root can reach. Pioneer plants yield fast: they cover bare ground within a season, and their leaves and roots become the first food for the soil life that the slower species later depend on. A good design copies this logic and looks for elements whose yields feed each other.

Where the principle works in the TerraWiki

These techniques show different ways of obtaining a yield without using up the land:

  • Food forest: many layers of edible and useful plants give a stream of different harvests through the year, with less work as the system matures.
  • Polyculture: mixed crops share light, water and soil in time and space, so that one patch yields several things at once.
  • Plant guild: a group of plants around a central tree, each adding a yield or a service the others need.
  • Syntropic agriculture: plants of different life spans are planted together so that quick crops bear in the first years while the long-lived trees grow.
  • Agroforestry: trees and crops on the same land give timber, fruit and field harvests side by side.
  • Silvopasture: animals grazing between trees turn grass into milk, meat or wool while the trees give shade, fruit and wood.
  • Biomass plants and nitrogen-fixing plants: their main yield goes to the soil as mulch and fertility, a harvest for the next harvest.
  • Compost: turns the leftovers of one yield into the fertility for the next.
  • Herb spiral: a small, close yield of herbs right next to the kitchen, where it is used every day.

The page on cycle thinking adds a thought credited to Bill Mollison: that the yield of a well-designed system is limited above all by the information and imagination of the designer.

At Sa Medada

Sa Medada is a slope in Jerzu, in Ogliastra on the east side of Sardinia, with mild winters and a dry season lasting roughly from May to September. Project Eden begins with pioneer plants, ground cover and water retention, the groundwork on which every later harvest depends.

The first yield is knowledge. Banana, mango, avocado, cherimoya, papaya, moringa, citrus and other species grow in the open ground and are being trialled in the microclimate of the slope, and what thrives and what fails there is recorded honestly. Several nitrogen fixers are already in the soil, among them Tephrosia, the coral tree, Inga edulis and Leucaena; their yield, if they are cut back as in syntropic systems, would go to the soil. A permaculture academy that passes this knowledge on is part of the plan. We give no harvest figures, because none have been measured yet.

The previous principle, catch and store energy, builds the reserves from which a yield can be taken. The next one, apply self-regulation and accept feedback, asks how much can be taken without harming the system.

Plants in this entry

Frequently asked

What does obtain a yield mean in permaculture?

It is the third of David Holmgren's twelve design principles. It asks that the work we put into a garden, farm or project should bring back rewards that are truly useful, not only in some distant future but early and along the way. Without a yield the people who tend a system lose strength and heart, and the best design is abandoned. The principle balances the long patience of observing and storing with the plain need to eat.

What is the proverb for this principle?

Holmgren pairs it with the saying you can't work on an empty stomach. It reminds us that people need immediate rewards to keep going. A plan that promises abundance in twenty years but gives nothing today asks too much. A good design therefore includes something that bears quickly, while the slower parts of the system grow.

Does yield only mean food?

No. Food is the most obvious yield, but permaculture counts many others: wood, fibre, fuel, mulch, medicinal and aromatic plants, seed, income, shade, cooler air, skills, knowledge, beauty and the friendships that grow around shared work. A flock of hens gives eggs, but also manure for the compost and help with scraps and weeds. Counting all yields of an element often shows that it is worth far more than its main product.

How do you measure the yield of a food forest?

Not per tree. A plantation is tuned to get the most from a single species; a food forest is better measured by the total harvest over the year in relation to the work it takes. Because many species bear at different times and support each other, a mature food forest can give a steady stream of different yields with comparatively little care. Yields are also spread over time: fast plants bear in the first years, shrubs a little later, and trees for decades.

What yields does Project Eden aim for at Sa Medada?

Project Eden is at an early stage. Its first yield is knowledge: banana, mango, avocado, cherimoya, papaya, moringa and citrus are being trialled in the microclimate of the slope, and what thrives and what fails is recorded. A permaculture academy that passes this knowledge on is part of the plan. We make no claims about harvest quantities, because there are no measured figures yet.

Pale fungi and white threads spreading over a fallen branch in leaf litterNext in this themeProduce no wasteHolmgren's sixth permaculture principle: value every output so that it finds a use, and read waste as the sign of a design that is not yet finished.

Related terms

Target image (AI visualisation): the future food forest at Sa Medada, layered beds between the olivesFood ForestA cultivated woodland of edible and useful plants arranged in layers, designed to work like a self-sustaining natural forest.Mixed bed with beans on maize, squash, tomatoes and basilPolycultureGrowing several plant species together on the same ground at the same time, instead of a single crop in isolation.Young fig tree with companion plants on mulched soilPlant GuildA mutually supportive grouping assembled around a central element, which may be a plant, an animal, or a structure such as a pond.Dense planting rows with bananas, papaya and young trees, prunings as mulchSyntropic AgricultureA regenerative farming method that grows food by accelerating natural forest succession, developed by the Swiss farmer Ernst Götsch in Brazil.Aerial view of a Mediterranean permaculture smallholding at golden hour: a house, a pond, round keyhole beds, a straw-covered compost heap, chickens under fruit trees and a food forest, all linked by pathsCycle thinking in permacultureThe permaculture view of land as linked loops of water, nutrients, carbon, material and seed, all of them driven by sunlight.Small permaculture homestead with fruit trees, vegetable beds and a pondDavid HolmgrenAustralian environmental designer, born 1955, co-founder of permaculture and author of its twelve design principles; lives and works at Melliodora in Victoria.

Mentioned in

See this in practice

Project Eden →

Further reading from around the world

Freely available sources we recommend for going deeper.

Sources

  • David Holmgren, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, Holmgren Design Services (2002, revised edition Melliodora Publishing 2017)
  • Holmgren Design, Principle 3: Obtain a yield, permacultureprinciples.com (accessed October 2026)
  • Bill Mollison, Permaculture: A Designers' Manual, Tagari Publications (1988)
  • Martin Crawford, Creating a Forest Garden, Green Books (2010)
  • Smith and Read, Mycorrhizal Symbiosis, 3rd edition, Academic Press (2008)
  • FAO, The 10 elements of agroecology: guiding the transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems (2018)

Last updated: 2026-10-16