Abstract
To what extent greenhouse gas emissions could be offset by soil biochar amendment is hotly debated. Residues from staple food crops are an obvious and promising choice, for gasifier energy appliances and biochar production in farming system of tropical Africa, for example, Uganda. Yet until now, the quantities of biomass residues from staple crops available for these technologies and their potential carbon sequestration have not been comprehensively investigated. Our interdisciplinary research demonstrates that biochar from unused biomass waste on farms in Uganda presents substantial opportunities for mitigation of climate change, generation of low-carbon energy, and intensification of agriculture. Photo credit: D. Roobroeck. Photo credit: D. Roobroeck. These photographs illustrate the article “Biophysical potential of crop residues for biochar carbon sequestration, and co-benefits, in Uganda” by Dries Roobroeck, Rebecca Hood-Nowotny, Dianah Nakubulwa, John-Baptist Tumuhairwe, Jackson Majaliwa, Isaac Ndawula, and Bernard Vanlauwe published in Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1984
Highlights
Biochar by definition is the organic end product of a pyrolysis process, which is intended for soil amendment
The topography of the landscape is undulating, and pronounced gradients in soil properties are found between individual farmer fields (Appendix S1: Table S1), which may lead to substantial variation of attainable crop yields
Rice and millet generated a significant larger amount of straw compared to groundnut, with mean yields amounting to 1.10–1.35 Mg dry mass (DM)/ha more
Summary
Biochar by definition is the organic end product of a pyrolysis process (i.e., thermal decomposition in a low oxygen atmosphere), which is intended for soil amendment. This study assesses the biophysical potential to sequester C in soils via biochar derived from by-product residues of maize, sorghum, rice, millet and groundnut crops in smallholder farming enterprises of eastern Uganda, separately quantifying straw and non-straw fractions (i.e., shanks, chaff, and shells).
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