Know all about 'Project SOM'

If there is something that's keeping farmers up all night across the globe, it is the adverse effects of Climate Change. For the longest time, we have been researching and brainstorming on how we as a brand can meaningfully contribute to solve the problem and take our community along with us on that journey.

The word 'SOM' stands for 'Soil Organic Matter' and it is single handedly the biggest element we can optimise for to rejuvenate our soil and make them more resilient in the face of extreme climate variability.

With 'Project SOM', our goal is to add decomposed organic matter back to the top 12 inches of the soil, which are responsible for sustaining about 90% of the biodiversity.

We add carbon in form of vermicompost and nutrient solubilising bacteria back to our producer partners' farm soil in order to help them improve their soil quality index, reduce their dependency on other form of plant nutrition, and reduce the amount and frequency of the irrigation water needed, thus improving the crop quality.

The importance of Soil Organic Matter can't be emphasised more.

• It rebuilds the optimal ratio of soil particles: clay, silt and sand.

• It makes soil pH moves towards neutral, where one level (for e.g. pH8 to pH7, OR pH6 to pH7) enable plants to absorb 100x more micronutrients, thus reducing their dependency on inorganic fertilisers.

• It helps the soil achieve the optimum C:N ratio, i.e. 24:1, a ratio which is ideal for the microbe life to thrive in the soil and keep them healthy, airy and provide for plants' nutritional requirements.

• It increases the soil's water retention capacity, thus reducing the evaporation rate, and the need of more and frequent flood irrigation.

Generally speaking every kilogram of 'Soil Organic Matter' adds 580 grams of 'Soil Organic Carbon' to the soil. Every tee helps add 90 kilograms of 'SOM' to the soil.

Second part of the profits from our merch sales will go to this project. Our hope is to add more organic carbon back to the soil via 'Project SOM', and have the ability the observe the improvement in soil quality index and crop flavours year on year.

If you have further questions and would love to know anything in specific, please carry on the discussion on our discord channel in #projectsom thread.