Người Chăn Đất

Listen to the soil · Know the soil · Know yourself · Walk alongside living things

Stage 1–4

Thirty months

From active acid sulfate soil at pH 2.5 to stable growing ground at pH 6.5. Four stages, documented with field photographs taken continuously from December 2023 to June 2026.

Stage 1 of 4

Infrastructure and subsoil remediation

Focus
Digging ponds, raising planting beds, building the irrigation and drainage system, constructing perimeter dykes, tilling and liming to reduce acidity.
Outcome
Core infrastructure in place. Localised waterlogging dropped noticeably and the subsoil began to stabilise.

Photographs from this stage

  • Abandoned acid sulfate land before remediation, bare ground with sparse weeds

    The acid sulfate land as we found it

  • Widely flooded land, still water reflecting the sky

    Waterlogged conditions

  • The first planting beds mounded up above the waterline

    Starting to raise the beds

  • A grower measuring and checking the newly raised beds

    Surveying the beds after raising them

  • Ditch water and soil stained rust-orange, the signature of active acid sulfate soil

    Acid water and rust-coloured soil

  • The acid-forming layer cut open: a streak of rust-yellow oxidised soil beside the blue-grey clay that has not yet oxidised

    Face to face with the acid-forming layer

Stage 2 of 4

Biomass growth and organic matter build-up

Focus
Straw mulching, planting banana and grasses for biomass, growing pineapple, cassava and legumes, adding compost and microbial inoculants, trialling short-cycle vegetables.
Outcome
Soil turned darker, looser and better at holding moisture. Beneficial microorganisms began to appear.

Photographs from this stage

  • Pipes and channels under construction across the site

    Building the irrigation system

  • Tractor turning over soil on the raised beds

    Tilling to remediate the soil

  • Straw spread across the beds to retain moisture and limit acid rising

    Straw mulching to hold moisture

  • A ditch carrying acid water along the line of the planting beds

    Drainage ditch for acid water

  • Seedling trays being raised for the first planting

    Raising seedlings

  • Acid-tolerant and biomass crops going into the new beds

    Planting acid-tolerant and biomass crops

Stage 3 of 4

Stabilising the soil ecosystem

Focus
Adding biochar, trialling magnetised water, planting papaya, red-flesh jackfruit and vegetables. The crops came on well and papaya was near harvest when, in October 2025, a flood larger than the 2024 one overtopped the dyke.
Outcome
Almost a total loss, with only the first batch of green papaya sold in time. But earthworms and beneficial insects had increased markedly, and the infrastructure held where it mattered: no bank collapse, no bed erosion. Once the water drained, planting could start again without rebuilding anything.

Photographs from this stage

  • A handful of loose, dark soil, a world away from the pale acid ground we started with

    Soil clearly better in colour, structure and organic matter

  • Beds evenly covered in green, the system running steadily

    Beds settled in, vegetables doing well

  • Tall papaya trees with dense green canopies on the remediated ground

    Papaya growing green and strong

  • An evenly thriving garden with fruit and vegetables nearing harvest

    Every crop thriving, harvest close

  • A garden days from harvest submerged in floodwater, plants flattened and swept away

    The 2025 flood sweeps away a crop days from harvest

  • Floodwater covering the entire site, only a few treetops still showing

    A violent flood swallows all of it

Stage 4 of 4

Validating production capability

Focus
Planting 800 cucumber and 800 okra plants, plus bitter melon, bottle gourd, luffa, winter melon, winged bean and brown eggplant on the remediated soil.
Outcome
Harvested 2,750 kg of produce — the first profitable crop since remediation began.

Photographs from this stage

  • Green shoots returning to ground that has just come through the flood

    After the flood, the land comes back

  • Fruit trees in fresh green growth on the very land the flood had swallowed

    After the flood — the orchard green again

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