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Soils offer new hope to curtail environment degradation

Soils offer new hope to curtail environment degradation

 

Agricultural soils are known to provide food and replenish the water table, but a new research has unraveled soil’s potential to reduce greenhouse gases and increase production at the same time.

The study conducted at NSW Department of Primary Industries’ (DPI) Wollongbar Agricultural Institute, harps on the fact that agrichar doubles the crop growth when applied at the rate of 10 tones per hectare.

Agrichar is a black carbon byproduct of the process called pyrolysis that involves heating green waste or other biomass without oxygen to generate renewable energy. It is hailed as a savior of Australia’s carbon-depleted soils and the environment.

Tim Flannery, Australian of the Year and renowned scientist, conservationist and explorer, is a major advocate of agrichar and pyrolysis and recommends fostering pyrolysis-based technologies. Agrichar acts as a savior of mother earth, because of its potential to convert crop waste into fuel and enhance soil fertility and store carbon long-term.

Agrichar raises pH of the soil at about one-third the rate of lime, increases calcium levels and reduces aluminum toxicity of the red ferrasols. With this we see an improvement in soil biology and water retention capacity of the soil and the need to add fertilizers is reduced quite handsomely.

Moreover, stable carbon in agrichar remains locked up in the soil for hundreds of years, as compared to labile carbon like crop residue, mulch and compost which is likely to last two or three years.

Agrichar assists the environment by reducing soil carbon emissions because stable ones in the form of agrichar replace rapidly decomposing carbon forms.

Unfortunately, agrichar is not widely available for farmers. Only BEST Energies Australia, a company assisting NSW DPI in the trials, has a pilot plant at Gosford, which produces minimal amounts for research purposes.

It is hoped that the technology will take hold and more pyrolysis plants are built, so that environment degradation is held captive.

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Via: Biologynews

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