As frequency of flooding events increases around the world, 2015 New Voices Fellow, Esther Ngumbi, in this new piece for Project Syndicate, highlights the increased impact of flooding on agriculture and soil. She notes that while the impact of flooding on soil may be be subtler, it is “no less important to the visible devastation” often caused by flooding.
Severe flooding, Ngumbi writes, can “damage the invisible world of microscopic life that underpins our agriculture, with far-reaching implications for food security as the climate crisis worsens”.
Highlighting her research at the University of Illinois, Ngumbi notes that extreme wet conditions can cause severe crop losses, including from reduced plant growth and unplanted farmland. She further calls on countries around the world to “connect the gots between flooding, soil quality, plant health, and food insecurity” as only it is the only way to “design science-backed interventions to minimize flooding’s harmful impact on crop production.”
To read more on Ngumbi’s research on the impact of flooding on soil-microbial communities click below.