Effectiveness of biochar is often linked with three aspects - 1) production (feedstock type- plant vs animal based biomass, and temperature and aeration control mechanism during pyrolysis), 2) rates of application (low or below 5 ton/ha, medium or between 5 to 15 ton/ha and high or above 15 ton/ha) and, 3) enhanced biochar (with treatment of urine, minerals and others ).
I am in need of practical suggestions to boost up some community led startups for production and application of biochar to their degrading agricultural soils. Please advise.
Hi Hani,
Thanks for giving attention to my question.
General problems with the soils include high silt over 60%, low OM content and acidity. Being the mountain terraces, maintaining moisture contain and retaining essential nutrients is another critical issue. Fed up with desperate attempts to enhance productivity of stapple crops e.g. maize, rice and wheat; farmers are looking for alternative crops and soil ammendment techniques.
Dear Ngamindra, the general trend appears to be valorisation of biochar (e.g. addition to compost, poultry litter, anaerobic digesters prior to addition to soil) in order to charge it with nutrients and microorganisms. As Hani Antoun
indicated we need to know the actual problem you try to solve because biochar is not a silver bullet that can solve all ailments. From your reply I believe valorised biochar can play a role to solve the problem. Have a look at Gerard Cornelissen his work he collaborated with farming communities in Nepal. All the best, Rob.
Dear Robert Thomas Bachmann
Valorisation of biochar sounds a good idea to begin with. I am actually trying to help some rural farmers to enhance productivity of their lands by introducing technique of biochar production and application with locally available underutilized feedstock. Would you also recommend a minimum rate of biochar that one should apply for?
I suggest three main categories of biochar application rate 1) 5 t/hectare, 2) 10 t/hectare 3) 15 ton/hectare. Above 15 ton per hectare.
Dear Ngamindra Dahal ,
from my understanding the application rate depends on a number of factors such as quantity of the underutilised feedstock available to you, cost of biochar production, expected added value to farmer (e.g. greater yield or better product quality or reduced losses which all equates to extra income that can be spent on biochar++), the soil texture and fertility, any preconditioning (e.g. co-composting of biochar), number of seasons with positive effect from biochar addition and application method (broadcasting or spot-application).
Our agronomic experience with valorised biochar is, compared to pure biochar, its infancy. The meta-analyses out there are practically all about effect of pure biochar. From Article Biochar’s effect on crop productivity and the dependence on ...
it was found that from pure biochar application rates between
Dear Robert,
This is quite useful. I will check with Prof Gerard Cornerlissen and also go through the article. Thank you very much.
Ngamindra
Well answer from the experts, I observed that parent material, pyrolysis condition, particle size after grinding is critical.
Dear Ngamindra Dahal
from the feedback received here and your own reading and experience, could you come up with recommendations to boost community led startups for production and application of biochar to their degrading agricultural soils? Let us know what worked and what did not. All the best, Rob.
Dear Robert Thomas Bachmann,
I appreciate your interest and follow up. Keeping all those suggestions in mind, I am going to start a pilot study in next couple of months. I would love to share my findings once I gather some data, may be later this year.
Let's be in touch! Regards - Ngamindra
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