DESCRIPTION/CONTEXTE:
The worsening of soil degradation and desertification in rural India has led to a strong decrease in agricultural productivity, and thus an increase in poverty and a amplifying of the food insecurity of the populations. “Biochar”, or “Terra Preta” as it later becomes, allows the sustainable capturing of carbon dioxide at the same time as improving soil quality and fertility. But the technique of improving soils through burying conventional charcoal has been handed down from the practices of Amazon Indians from thousands of years ago (which was the origin of the formation of the very rich “Terra Preta” soils), and has proven to be a solution that is at once simple, quick, sustainable and very efficient at addressing the problems. Over the course of three years, this project has two main components: first, to distribute 5 000 improved cooking stoves that will allow more effective food preparation on the one hand, but also, through a process known as pyrolysis that takes place within the cooker, the carbonisation of biomass to be used in agriculture afterwards (the burying of the biomass to produce Terra Preta). The second part consists in establishing a network for the production of this biochar in the rural communities. This project will also allow the onducting of surveys and tests into the exact measurement of carbon capture and productivity gains.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS :
Improving soil quality: the high carbon concentration of biochar gives it the property of —when it is buried and even in soil that is very damaged— retaining minerals, nutrients,and water (absorption), thus becoming an ideal and sustainable environment for microorganisms, which are responsible for increasing soil fertility. It is estimated that Terra Preta (the name for the biochar soils) has a 8 times higher fertility than normal soil.
Carbon sequestration: the great stability of this structure makes biochar a permanent trap for carbon sequestration: Terra Preta has a carbon content of around 13% to 14%.
SOCIO-ECONOMICAL BENEFITS:
Beyond the definite environmental benefits, this project, which is easily applicable in regions that are strongly affected by rural poverty, presents considerable economic and social benefits.
Biochar, which results from the pyrolysis of biomass, can be produced from renewable biomass (agricultural or forest residues, abundant plants such as the Prosopis Juliflora, etc.), which is available locally at a low cost and which use does not threaten biodiversity. The carbonization yield will also, in this project, improve the use of kilns that are more efficient than traditional ones.
Therefore, the use of biochar, produced from wood that otherwise would be burnt in an open field, as soil amendment in addition to traditional fertilizers (which give essential nutrients) can considerably increase the standard of living of threatened populations.
By preventing, in the long-term, the degradation of the soil while also increasing the effects of the fertilizers in the crops, biochar allows to obtain a crop productivity and quality that is much higher than what is normally yielded and therefore helps eradicate rural poverty of the most disadvantaged populations.
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