Sustainable Technology: Biochar
Julie Major, Workshop presented to Sustainable Harvest International,Honduras, January 2008
Reported in La Cosecha (The Harvest), Sustainable Harvest International newsletter, Spring 2008, p. 4.
Black is the New Green: SHI Field Staff Learn the Benefits of Biochar for Agriculture
During the annual Board and staff meeting held in January in Honduras, field staff from Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and Panama attended a workshop presented by Julie Major of Cornell University on managing soils with biochar. Biochar can be made simply and cheaply from any organic material, just by piling it, covering it up with soil to exclude air and setting it on fire. During the workshop biochar was made from rice hulls and pieces of pine wood for demonstration, but any crop residue or plant waste can be used to make biochar, such as coffee pulp, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, etc.
Sustainable Harvest International
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/