Floods, spongy soil, coconut and a drum roll...

Every year farmers across the country suffer from floods. We have been asking the question for our own farm and others- how can we stop floods or at least minimise their damage?

One answer is - “spongy” soil. If soil was like a sponge, it could absorb water, taking it in slowly and moving it down to groundwater depths where it could be relied upon in the dry season. Non-spongy soil cannot hold water and lets it shoot off downstream, gathering strength and causing damage. (Watch a video here demonstrating this with bread and flour.)

A spongy soil vs a non-spongy soil.

If all farms increased their soil sponginess, there would be less water streaming off downstream and less floods.

How a spongy field impacts where the water flows in a farming landscape.

There are many ways to make spongy soil and for each farm, it would be a different answer and never, never only one strategy. When we were flooded last weekend, I was very grateful to one particular strategy that has been working very well for us- coconut.

We get free coconut husks from a local factory and we have been putting bags and bags down in our pathways. With the recent heavy rain, the concrete roads outside our farm turned into rivers, but our coconut behaved exactly like a sponge. It held our farm in place, gridlocking our soil beds, both preventing and catching any soil run-off.

Applying fresh coconut to the pathways.

Even under a microscope, it looks ‘spongy’. Fungal threads weaving it together and clumps of organic matter signalling bacterial glues at work.

The soil under and next to our coconut pathways is full of fungi and bacteria.

On heavy rainfall days, I imagine our tiny site as drain for our neighbourhood, easing pressure on a very broken water landscape.

Urban farms are important.

But what about the rest of the country? How can we support farmers to find their own spongy flood-stopping solutions?

Well, I guess its time to announce that we have been working on that. (Drum roll)

For the last year, we have been piloting the Healthy Soil App and Dashboard.

These are its key elements;

1. Farmers complete 6 soil health tests every month with results displayed on a public dashboard. Tests such as structure and water infiltration can directly indicate their spongy capacity and the dashboard tracks their improvement over time.

2. We don’t tell farmers what to do. They are not using coconut as it doesn’t make sense in their contexts. All the farmers have been utilising other ‘spongy’ strategies such as; applying compost, mulching, applying microbial brews and leaving roots in the ground.

3. Peer learning and transparency. We don’t have time for competition, the next flood is guaranteed. Building healthy soils is urgent work, it takes a community and lots of learning from each other.

4. We pay the farmers. When a farmer improves their soil, it's for the benefit of all of us. It helps them take the risks and financially supports them to find solutions that fit their context.

It’s very early days, but it's been going well. There is so much to share and we will start doing that soon. For now, please take a look at the dashboard and meet the flood-stoppers aka our Healthy Soil Farmers.

Farmers in Pindaya, Hmawbi and Pyin Oo Lwin testing and recording data in the Soil Health app.