NRU :: Browsing by Author "Botnen Smebye, Andreas"

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Biochar Application to Soil for Increased Resilience of Agroecosystems to Climate Change in Eastern and Southern Africa
(Springer, Cham, 2019) Obia, Alfred; Martinsen, Vegard; Cornelissen, Gerard; Børresen, Trond; Botnen Smebye, Andreas; Munera-Echeverri, Jose L.; Mulder, Jan
With the current unreliable rainfall pattern, which is expected to worsen due to climate change, agricultural production might become more challenging especially among resource-poor farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa. This calls for adaptation of farming systems to overcome this emerging challenge. Biochar, a product of biomass pyrolysis, with long-term evidence from Amazonia, might contribute to a climate-resilient farming system. This is due to its positive effects on soil chemical and physical properties resulting in increased crop yields, which has been experimentally demonstrated largely within the last two decades. In acidic low cation exchange capacity (CEC) soils, biochar derived from corncob at 5% application rate, for example, increased pH by ≥1 unit and CEC by ≥2 cmolc kg−1 in addition to direct nutrient supply. Increased CEC may be linked to the observed increase in soil organic carbon content (biochar carbon/sequestered carbon) due to biochar addition. Sequestration of carbon due to biochar has been reported to be stronger in soils that have low pH and low carbon contents, with greater effects from biochars