[Terrapreta] Assaying carbon levels in soil

[lou gold]

Obviously there would be a need for some protocols.

I guess the question you are asking is what prevents a poor farmer from
selling the char or using it as fuel instead of putting it into the soil. I
hesitate to speculate because I have almost no experience in this realm.
Perhaps there would have to be a soil test but this seems impossible across
large landscapes.  Maybe there are other ways to check.

My naive hope is that when farmers see the results in crop productivity they
will want to use the char as a soil amendment.

What do you think?




On Nov 30, 2007 6:46 PM, Rick Davies <rick.davies at gmail.com> wrote:

> You could measure how much you were "pouring in", but how would anyone
> verify that, except by having access to before and after measures of the
> carbon content of the same soil? Or by being able to compare carbon content
> in soil where carbon was (reportedly) added and other soil nearby where
> carbon had not been added (and which otherwise appeared to be the same soil
> type)
>
> regards, rick
>
>
> On Nov 30, 2007 8:42 PM, lou gold <lou.gold at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Rick,
> >
> > You would not measure the amount of carbon already in the soil. You
> > would measure the amount of carbon added as an agrichar amendment.
> >
> > all best,
> >
> > lou
> >
> > On Nov 30, 2007 6:35 PM, Rick Davies < rick.davies at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > If a poor rural community wanted to get paid for sequestering carbon
> > > in their farm soils, how would they or any independent third party be able
> > > to measure the carbon of their soils content before and after putting
> > > biochar in the soil?
> > >
> > > Would it be rocket science, or are there any methods that are
> > > reasonably low tech, whose costs would not exceed potential income gains
> > > from selling carbon offsets / carbon credits?
> > >
> > > (Putting aside all the questions of how they would access these
> > > markets via intermediaries / demand aggregators)
> > >
> > > regards, rick davies
> > >
> > > --
> > > Rick Davies (Dr),
> > > Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
> > > Phone: (44) 01223 841367, Mobile:  (44) 07855 766 354, Skype:
> > > rickjdavies,
> > > Fax(to email): 44 (0)870 1640239, Email: rick.davies at gmail.com
> > > Monitoring and Evaluation NEWS at http://www.mande.co.uk
> > > Rick on the Road at http://www.mandenews.blogspot.com
> > > Homepage at http://www.shimbir.demon.co.uk
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> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > http://lougold.blogspot.com/
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/sets/
>
>
>
>
> --
> Rick Davies (Dr),
> Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
> Phone: (44) 01223 841367, Mobile:  (44) 07855 766 354, Skype: rickjdavies,
>
> Fax(to email): 44 (0)870 1640239, Email: rick.davies at gmail.com
> Monitoring and Evaluation NEWS at http://www.mande.co.uk
> Rick on the Road at http://www.mandenews.blogspot.com
> Homepage at http://www.shimbir.demon.co.uk
>



-- 
http://lougold.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/sets/
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