[Terrapreta] Biochar and the nitrogen cycle

[Greg and April]

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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Biopact 
  To: Greg and April ; Michael Bailes ; Terra Preta 
  Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 9:13
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Biochar and the nitrogen cycle


  Skyhigh fertilizer prices are currently making a lot of farmers think about lowering their application rates, I think.

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  <shrug>    I'm not so sure.    While they may be rethinking about the application rates, there has been little sign that it's dropping.    Many farmers have the belief that extra fertilizer will help plants through a drought.    

  When the price of fertilizer get's above that of char, then we will see a big change, but until then I believe that it is going to be business as usual. 

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  The good thing about biochar amongst smallholders in the tropics is that most of them don't use fertilizer to start with. An intervention there to make agriculture more productive with char and fertilizer (the combination of which is most beneficial), can teach farmers about correct rates from the very start because rates would be optimized for use on char-amended soils. Obviously, access to knowledge and economic incentives are the key drivers for success here. 

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  It's really not the small farmer in any country, it's big Agro Businesses and the belief that you have to either become big or get out, that is at the root of the problem.    Poor pricing for a farmers crops is also another root of the problem - a farmer has to get more out of his limited amount of land and for a long time fertilizer was the only way to get more crops from the limited land.

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  A formal N2O emissions market might come in handy, but I don't see this coming about anywhere soon. 

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  I doubt that will ever happen - there are to many natural sources for it to ever work.

  Greg H.
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