Our projects> Testing biochar-pigeon pea agroforestry businesses in Zambia (ClimChar Zambia)

Testing biochar-pigeon pea agroforestry businesses in Zambia (ClimChar Zambia)

Closed

Combination

Agriculture/fishery

Forestry

Call 7

Zambia

Time consumed

Start: 15-Feb-19 End: 15-Dec-21

Lead Nordic partner

Menon Economics

Country of Lead Nordic partner

Norway

Local partner(s)

Conservation Farming Unit

NCF grant size

456,290

Total project cost

705,103

Technologies

Briquettes and pellets

Methods

Sustainable biochar, Training

Country of implementation:

Zambia

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Description

Small-scale farmers will be introduced to a new business concept, combining pigeon pea as a new cash crop, and the use of biochar as a combined climate mitigation and adaptation strategy.

This project will test a new, green business concept in four locations in Zambia. Selected farmers will receive training in pigeon pea production, a relatively new crop in the Zambian context. The farmers will be...

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Objective

Project's expected key results are:
•Increased farm incomes from pigeon pea production and potentially improved nutrition due to pigeon pea consumption
•Improved maize yields and reduced vulnerability of maize yields to climate variability, resulting in reduced poverty and vulnerability to climate change
•Increased soil carbon storage
•Robust knowledge on the profitability and potential for scaling up biochar-pigeon pea businesses

Results

The project has confirmed that biochar, when produced and applied correctly, has the potential for enhancing soil moisture retention, which improves drought-tolerance of farmers' maize crops, contributing to climate change adaptation and increases maize yields, leading to increases in farm household income. The results indicate average maize yield increases of 12-37% upon the addition of 4 ton/ha biochar. Recent severe droughts in parts of Zambia,... The project has confirmed that biochar, when produced and applied correctly, has the potential for enhancing soil moisture retention, which improves drought-tolerance of farmers' maize crops, contributing to climate change adaptation and increases maize yields, leading to increases in farm household income. The results indicate average maize yield increases of 12-37% upon the addition of 4 ton/ha biochar. Recent severe droughts in parts of Zambia, has underlined the importance of increasing farm households’ resilience to droughts. Given that climate change is expected to result in increased dry spells during the Zambian growth season, the need for more drought-tolerant methods and technologies will increase in the coming years.
Biochar furthermore helps to store carbon in the soil, causing an increase in soil organic carbon by 20-30%, thus contributing to mitigating climate change. In this project, 168 households applied an average amount of 103 kg biochar, giving a total of 43,5 tonnes of CO2-eq. of direct emission reductions during the project period. There is potential to finance carbon storage through the international ‘voluntary carbon market’. Such mechanisms can make biochar more profitable for more farmers, with benefits to farmers as well as for climate mitigation. We found that – due to the costs associated with administrating, monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon projects, the financial viability of biochar as a carbon project in this context relies on improved maize yields as well as carbon revenues. That is, the carbon project on its own was not financially viable.
The observed increases in maize yields, farmer incomes and carbon sequestration are lower than targeted. Reasons include a wet growing season in 2020-2021, meaning that the effect of biochar on plant-available water was smaller than to be expected in drier years; the amounts of applied biochar was lower than targeted, mostly because less than expected production of residual biomass; and that fewer farm households than expected adopted the new techniques.
An important lesson learned is that technology adoption takes time, stressing the need for strong training and close follow-ups, in addition to patience in evaluating results of new agricultural techniques. This project has covered two agricultural seasons. After the second season the farmer may see benefits on their staple crop (maize), which could in turn increase adoption also for neighbouring farmers. Another learned lesson is to test several different varieties of the new crop (pigeon pea) to find a variety that combines good yields with high amounts of biomass, to be used for biochar.