Happy soil, happy fruit

Soil isn't just lifeless dirt. A single teaspoon of healthy soil can hold anywhere from a hundred million to a billion microbes: bacteria, fungi, algae and more. That's why ReCAP's handbook asks farmers to treat soil as a living ecosystem.

Compost and other organic fertilisers bring both nutrients and organic matter. As the handbook puts it, chemical fertilisers feed the plant, but organic fertilisers feed the soil. Too much chemical fertiliser and pesticide, or using them the wrong way, harms soil microbes and upsets nutrient cycling.

The handbook gives a real example from a coconut farm in Ratchaburi: soil under cover crops for 3 years had 4.05% organic matter, while bare soil on the same farm had only 2.48%.

Healthy soil has a good crumbly structure with space for rain to sink in quickly and stay there for the roots. Soil low in organic matter seals over instead. The water pools on top and runs off, carrying topsoil and nutrients away with it.

Cover crops and a mulch of leaves around each tree slow evaporation, let more water soak in and cut the need for watering, so the orchard copes better with dry spells.

Skipping synthetic fertilisers and pesticides also means less chance of them getting into the soil, water and air. That matters even more in canal-orchard country, where canal water flows from one orchard to the next.

ReCAP recommends growing a mix of intercrops alongside coconuts, such as banana, papaya, pandan and pineapple. Different roots feed different soil life. Variety also breaks disease cycles and gives pollinators a place to live.

Stingless bees and Asian honeybees pollinate coconut flowers and help more fruit set. But bees are very sensitive to chemicals, which is why ReCAP's handbook calls them a good fit for organic farms.

Some insects are the farmer's helpers, like the tiny parasitoid wasps that keep the coconut black-headed caterpillar in check. The handbook's integrated pest management works by giving these natural enemies a chance instead of relying on chemicals.

Farming is one of the big causes of climate change, and also one of the sectors hit hardest by it. ReCAP sees regenerative farming as a way to help on both fronts.

Soil holds roughly 3–4 times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Plants pull in carbon dioxide to make their food and pass some of it down into the soil through their roots. Disturbing the soil less and keeping it covered helps that carbon stay put.

The handbook reckons a coconut orchard produces about 4 tonnes of old fronds and discarded nuts per rai each year. Dumped in a canal, they rot without air and give off methane. Burned, they turn to smoke. So ReCAP developed three compost recipes made from coconut waste, letting farmers put it back into the orchard.

ReCAP's handbook is clear that farm chemicals are expensive and, over time, harmful to farmers' health and to the environment. Cutting out toxic synthetic inputs, it says, reduces the potential harm from exposure, both while working in the orchard and through food, air and water.

Cover crops keep weeds down without herbicides and save hours of weeding. The handbook points out that home-made coconut-waste compost costs far less than most compost on the market. Intercrops and honey from stingless bees mean income doesn't depend on coconuts alone.

By the end of the project, ReCAP reported that among its participating farmers, bee-keeping had gone up by 25%, use of organic compost by 17% and cover-crop planting by 15%.

ReCAP worked with Nam Hom coconut growers in four provinces. 449 farmers joined, covering 5,781 rai, and 8 demonstration plots were set up so that farmers, officials and the general public could come and learn.

Some coconut pests, like the black-headed caterpillar, need the whole community working together to keep them under control. One orchard on its own isn't enough.

The knowledge keeps travelling. Master trainers were trained to teach others, the plan was to hand the curriculum and compost-making equipment to local agricultural extension offices after the project, and four pilot farmers started their own compost businesses.