New: (May 1, 2008): Interesting and amazing results after 6 weeks

Kumba, SWR, Cameroon - May 1, 2009 - The Biochar Fund and Key Farmers Cameroon have succeeded in implementing the first phase of their pilot trial in Cameroon's South-West Region.

After 6 weeks - and after the dedicated effort of around 1500 small-scale farmers - the first results are now available. On some of the poorest soils, biochar shows an amazing effect: the difference in biomass growth between control plots and plots that received char can be more than 200%.

In some test fields, the maize on the char-plots has already begun to tassel, whereas the plants on the control are barely past the 8-leave stage.

Image (click to enlarge): Ernest Adege Ama, a young farmer working at the forest frontier in Mambanda, shows his test plot. The line of sub-plots on the left is the control, the line in the middle received the equivalent of 10 tons of char per hectare, whereas the one on the right received 20 tons.

Read more.

New: (March 28, 2009): Biochar Fund successfully completes first phase of pilot project in Cameroon

After two months of producing char from a variety of widely available feedstocks (palm fronds, cassava stems, weeds and three types of wood), the product was distributed amongst the farmer associations, in different villages around the town of Kumba. The groups were then assisted in establishing their small test plots, on which they currently grow maize, a local staple crop. Despite erratic rains, the maize has emerged and looks healthy on most of the test plots. Read more.

Food insecurity, soil depletion and energy poverty are tangible concerns for millions of subsistence farmers in Cameroon. Two organisations - the Biochar Fund and Key Farmers Cameroon - have now teamed up to study whether the utilisation of biochar can help solve these problems.

Biochar is a revolutionary soil management and land use strategy which consists of making nutrient-poor soils more fertile while turning them into stable carbon sinks. When applied at the tropical forest frontier - where peasants rely on slash-and-burn farming - the biochar concept can yield multiple simultaneous benefits: soil fertility is maintained, thus improving food security, while at the same time slowing the rate of deforestation. Because the soil acts as a carbon sink, climate change is effectively tackled as well. Last but not least, biochar is produced as a residue during the production of renewable energy from crop residues. 

In a series of field trials running from 2008 and throughout 2009, the Biochar Fund and Key Farmers Cameroon will test the effectiveness of biochar on crop yields and on maintaining soil fertility. Around 50 subsistence farmers, living around the town of Kumba in Southwest Province, will participate in the trials.

As the project progresses, participating farmers will share their views on the results and present them on this website. So check back often.