Potential for Synergizing Biochar

with Organic Agriculture and

Sustainable Landscape Management

Movements

Steven R. McGreevy

Kyoto University

Department of Agriculture

Outline

• Recognizing multiple contexts

– Broadening biochar’s “perimeter of concern”

– Profile the Asia-Pacific region (issues, commonalities)

– Different “Worlds of Production”

• Re-envisioning biochar systems and approaches

– “Industry” and “grassroots”

• Finding biochar allies: How can we synergize the biochar

movement with other similar movements?

– Organic Farming

– Sustainable Landscape Management

Biochar: A tool to improve agriculture, combat climate

changeSoil amendment

Improve yields

Soil structure, aeration, water retention

Soil ecology

Carbon sequestration

Carbon-negative (“Carbon minus”)

Decrease soil emissions (GHG)

Biochar: A tool for sustainable social and economic changeSustainable Land Management

-Biodiversity loss

-Ecosystem health

Changing industrialized agri-food systems

-Food security

-Fossil-fueled (1 food calorie for 1 calorie of oil)

Sustainable Rural Development (in both developing and developed countries)

-Agriculture in crisis

-Rural communities endangered

Broadening biochar’s perimeter of concern

Crises x3

Regional

Production

Demographics

Rural – Urban

Effects of

globalization

Biochar

projects

The Asia-Pacific Region

Climate

Wet (monsoon cycles) – Rice (Paddies)

Dry (drought cycles) – Livestock (Pasture)

Hydrology

Water used in agriculture, industry-- water tables falling

Critical Ecosystems

Forests (5% of world’s forests, accounts for 25% of forest loss over last decade)

Moving toward plantation forestry (monocultures)

Mangroves (shrimp farms, charcoal production)

Biodiversity

Massive loss of species diversity

Causes– deforestation (timber)

conversion of forest to agricultural lands (high demand for protein)

Rice- 100,000 varieties of rice in the early 20th century, less than a dozen in 2002

Source: McIntyre et al. 2009

Agriculture in Asia-Pacific Region

Agricultural landChina– 932,743,000 ha (cropland total) Pastures: 400,001,000 ha

India– 202,835,000 ha (arable, permanent cropland)

Australia– 391,565,000 ha (permanent pasture)

“Peasant” agriculture-Agriculture on a small scale, family labor

-Can be semi-mechanized, but more likely dependent upon manual labor

-Orientation to the market – a livelihood, not a business

1. Primary: production for subsistence, self-sufficiency

2. Secondary: production for market

-Reliant on internal and local resources to reproduce farm and production

-High autonomy (La Via Campesina movement)

Predominance of small-scale farms

(via: Eastwood et al. 2010)

Farm size data in some Asia-Pacific Countries

Source: Eastwood et al. 2010

“Worlds of Production”

• Clusters of conventions, practices, and

institutions

• Different models of food production

– Industrialized, large-scale, highly-mechanized,

dependent upon external inputs

– Peasant, small-scale, low level of mechanization,

reliant upon internal and local inputs

From Storper 1997

The agricultural industry needs a biochar industry

Peasant agriculture needs more of a grassroots approach

“Worlds of Biochar”There are two distinguishable “worlds” of biochar

1)Industrial approach

1) Large-scale

2) High-tech

3) Waste feedstock-- large, consistent volume

4) Co-production of energy products

5) Specialized producers

6) Primary product: Biochar; Secondary products: Bio-oils, electricity, heat

2)Grassroots approach

1) Small-scale

2) Low-tech

3) Distributed, varied, local feedstock– small, seasonal volume

4) Producers are also primary users (farmer-producers)

5) Primary product: food or fiber

6) Biochar adds value to products and activities

Source: Lehmann and Joseph 2009, pg. 153

“Grassroots”

“Industry”

Re-envisioning biochar systems

Carbon negative cycle (Source: Lehmann 2007, pg. 114)

Basic Biochar System

Biochar System: Industry

Biochar System: Grassroots

Increased yields, quality

Finding Allies

Biochar: A tool for sustainable social and economic

change

Sustainable Land Management

-Biodiversity loss

-Ecosystem health

Changing industrialized agri-food systems

-Food security

-Fossil-fueled (1 food calorie for 1 calories of oil)

Sustainable Rural Development (in both developing and

developed countries)

-Agriculture in crisis

-Rural communities endangered

Find existing projects that can be modified to incorporate

biochar

Sustainable Land

Management

Organic Agriculture

Sustainable Landscape Management

Rural landscapes provide food, fiber, energy, water, and other materials

necessary for human life.

People have always struggled to use landscapes in a way that respects the

capacity of nature to sustain natural levels of regeneration.

A great bulk of the damage to ecosystems seen in the last 60 years can be traced

to unsustainable practices carried out within the primary industries

Try to eliminate natural variability from agricultural and forestry systems

Landscape mismanagement

Agro-ecology – need to integrate agriculture with natural systems

Traditional landscape management techniques and knowledge are valuable

• Forty percent of Japan’s land area

• “Secondary nature” -- man-made

environment through careful management

(continuous, low-level disturbance)

• Mosaic-like: integrating human agricultural

and material needs with species habitat

• Supports high biodiversity of plants and

animals

• Cultural “Furusato” (birthplace, roots) of

village life and community values

Traditional Rural Landscape

“Satoyama”

Aerial photograph of rural area, satoyama

Mosaic patterning of satoyama -->

Land management, charcoal,

and agriculture: a rich history

• Local resources used for agricultural

production and energy (food and fuel)

• Lands carefully managed by villagers

for thousands of years

• Grasslands provided fodder for animals,

compost, roofing material; Coppiced

woodlands provided firewood, fallen

leaves (compost); Mountains provided

charcoal, building material, game, food

• Wood charcoal was used as fuel for

heating and cooking; Rice husk

charcoal used as soil amendment

• Resources were meticulously recycled

Top: coppiced woodland

Above left: cutting firewood

Above right: bringing firewood

home

Left: charcoal kiln

•Making “Barazumi”-- Charcoal from waste wood

•1950s

•Making “Kuntan”-- Rice Husk Charcoal

•1950s

• The end of WWII

signaled the beginning

of massive structural,

social and economic

changes brought on, in

part, by the fossil fuel

revolution

• Water and soil pollution

from agriculture

• Forests overgrown,

monoculture

plantations diseased

• Habitat loss

• Biodiversity loss

• Wildlife damage to

crops skyrocketing

Satoyama today

Above: pine wilt disease

Left: pine monoculture, pollen cloud

Below left: rice field damaged by

wild boar

Below right: rice field (untouched)

Satoyama Initiative

International partnership officially launched at COP 10 (Convention on Biological Diversity)

in Nagoya, 2010

Organized by the Japanese Ministry of Environment and United Nations University

GOAL: Advancing socio-ecological production landscapes for the benefit of biodiversity and

human well-being

•Consolidating wisdom on securing diverse ecosystem services and values

•Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and modern science to promote innovations

•Exploring new forms of co-management systems or evolving frameworks of “commons”

while respecting traditional communal land tenure

Recognizing that landscapes provide ecosystem services that we need to protect

Existing traditional landscape management techniques and knowledge are valuable

Currently has 91 member organizations

-45 of which are in the Asia-Pacific Region

Managing landscapes with fire

Managing landscapes with fire is a common,

traditional technique throughout the world

-alter the growing conditions for

desired species

-increase the diversity of habitat at

different stages of succession� increases

biodiversity

Slash and Burn agriculture to Slash and Char

agriculture (Biochar Fund)

Rehabilitation of Satoyama

Pine-wilt is a big problem in Western

Japan

-caused by nematodes in soil

Pine species depend on robust

mycorrhizal formation

Dr. Ogawa is promoting the rehabilitation

of pine forest satoyama by using charcoal

and mycorrhizal fungi

Organic agriculture in the

Asia-Pacific RegionLong history– Organic agriculture emerged from studies of traditional and

indigenous agriculture

•Sir Albert Howard experiences with Indian farmers became the basis of his later

work

•F. H. King catalogued the techniques he witnessed in China, Korea, and Japan at

the turn of the twentieth century– Farmers for Forty Centuries

Organic farming is a particular repertoire of agricultural techniques

•Limits or excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides

Certified organic vs non-certified organic

•Certified– large-scale production; costly to become certified; access larger

markets

•Non-certified– small-scale production; focuses on local production for local

consumption; relies on consumer-producer trust

Organic agriculture adds value to agricultural products because they are

“environmentally-friendly”-- label

Source: IFOAM 2008

Source: Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Organic Farmers in

Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Survey in Nagano of over 70 organic producers

-65% of producers were using biochar

-rice husk (kuntan)

-bamboo

-wood scraps

-Used in dry fields, rice paddies, orchards

-Also used in rice seedling production

Reasons for using biochar

-”makes the soil better”

-”healthier seedlings”

-”more soil microbial growth”

-”better soil structure, aeration, whc”

•Making “Kuntan” -- Rice Husk Charcoal

•2000s

Traditional seedling

production

Commercially

available rice

seedlings

Organic rice

seedlings

raised with rice

husk biochar

Biochar in roots

Increased yields, quality

Potential for synergy

Biochar production and treatment of soils are practices that can fit within the

“repertoires of practice” of sustainable landscape management and organic farming

Sustainable Landscape Management

Emphasis on “socio-ecological production landscapes”

Need to rehabilitate marginal or degraded lands

Organic Agriculture

Adding value through distinguishing it’s uniqueness (environmentally-friendly)

� Ag. produce cultivated with biochar is also unique (climate-friendly)

� “COOL VEGE” in Japan

Resources

Eastwood, Robert, Lipton, Michael, and Andrew Newell. (2010) “Farm size” in

Robert Evenson and Prabhu Pingali (eds) Handbook of Agricultural Economics,

Volume 4, pp. 3323-3394.

Hurni, Hans and Balgis Osman-Elasha. (2009) “Context, Conceptual Framework

and Sustainable Indicators” in Beverly D. McIntyre et al. (eds) International Assessment

of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD): Global

Report, pp. 1-56. Washington D.C.: IAASTD.

Lehmann, Johannes and Stephen Joseph. (2009) Biochar for Environmental

Management. London: Earthscan.

Lehmann, Johannes and Stephen Joseph. (2009) “Biochar Systems” in Johannes

Lehmann and Stephen Joseph (eds) Biochar for Environmental Management, pp.

147-168. London: Earthscan.

McIntyre, Beverly D et al. (eds) (2009) International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge,

Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD): East and South Asia and the Pacific

(ESAP) Report. Washington D.C.: IAASTD.

Storper, Michael. (1997) Worlds of Production: the Action Frameworks of the

Economy. US: Harvard College.