BIOCHAR, RURAL LEGUME VEGETABLE PRODUCTION SUSTAINABILITY, AND FOOD BANKING - Gbadebo Elebiyo, NHFB Farms Standards & Ag. Insurance Promotion Lead.

After listening meticulously the Global Foodbanking Network’s (GFN) presentation during the 6 – 18 November 2022, 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 27), in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, one of its striking outcomes of strategic interest to No Hunger Food Bank’s (NHFB) mission is enhancing the food systems capacities to reduce food loss while adapting to the changing climate. As NHFB’s Sustainable Farms, Standards Promotion, and Agricultural Insurance Lead, I assess the sustainability of small, medium, and mega farmlands in Nigeria. In this role, I have come to realize that one of the root causes food losses is poor farming practices which contribute to low yield in rural areas such that the soils are characterized by negative nutrient balance. Such unsustainable farming practices are due to continuous cropping on the same plot of land without returning crop residue and using little or no fertilizer. The soil has degraded to the point where yields decline after every harvesting season. Thus, the biochar - good soil management narrative should be advanced to prepare Nigeria for the future of climate adaptation practice within the context of sustainable food systems.

Farmers have tried using inorganic fertilizer to improve their crop performance, but it is too expensive for rural farmers, resulting in low fertilizer application. Fertilizer was mostly delivered late to government-aid farmers, and it was sometimes of poor quantity and quality. Inorganic fertilizer would not improve the soil; rather, it would provide an immediate response and then cease due to the method of application, with no long-term benefit to the soil. Because the soil is so degraded, the farmer must apply considerable amount of fertilizer on every crop. When fertilizer arrives late, farmers will undoubtedly suffer significant losses.

Biochar application remains one of the most promising innovations and climate-smart crop production tools. It increases nutrient holding capacity, water holding capacity, yield, and thus income while reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the soil and replacing inorganic fertilizer for legumes and vegetables. In Nigeria, minimal biochar research is conducted, and farmers are unaware of the existence of biochar. Further research on biochar and its value addition or modification is critical for farmer adoption. Farmers must be re-educated by agricultural extension workers and associations.

Production and materials for biochar are cheap relative to fertilizer for legumes and vegetables. Agro-industrial wastes easily transform into biochar, and two steel drums could solve farmers’ problems in rural areas. Wastes from the rice milling factory, sugarcane residue, litter from poultry, sawdust from the sawmill, the maize threshing factory, etc. are incredibly good examples of crop residues that can be charred for crop production. Biochar production could be another source of income for producers. In addition to being used as a soil remediation substance, its applications cut across sustainable agriculture and energy management in farming, such as substrate for inoculant and nursery planting material.

Biochar has an advantage over inorganic fertilizer in that it has residual benefits and may not need to be applied every year. It can retain nutrients and slowly releasing them. Biochar provides both major and minor nutrients, whereas fertilizer only provides the three basic nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Inorganic fertilizer leaches easily from the soil and is not a sustainable option. Sub-optimal rates of application of nutrient-enriched biochar, tillage, and cropping systems will result in higher soil N, P, K, Ca, and Mg concentrations and yields. Biochar will be more beneficial in a low-tillage, soybean-based intercropping system. Biochar mineralization is curbed with reduced tillage, but soybean integration benefits nitrogen fixation and crop residue. This method will hasten the return of nutrients to the soil while also lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

In the new year 2023, the NHIs-Biochar Project aims at balancing negative nutrients in the soil nutrient retention context. At the end of the project, it will eliminate the need for annual fertilizer applications as well as the problem of leaching. In addition to its objectives such as soil nutrition, water retention capacity, and nutrient availability, it is a potential organic fertilizer for solving the productivity challenges confronting legume and vegetable growers on degraded soils. Would you like to partner with NHIs -Biochar Project on insufficient fertilizer application on deteriorated soil and late fertilizer supply to rural farmers? If yes, kindly message me directly or send an expression of interest (EOI) email to:?[email protected]. No Hunger Food Bank wishes you a Happy New Year!