Publication: Converting Agro-Waste into Biochar: Improving Soil Fertility and Productivity in ASAL Ecosystems
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2020-01
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Office of DVC Research, Innovation and Enterprise,
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Abstract
The prevalent constrain of food insecurity
in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs)
continue to worsen due to deteriorating
soil health and increasing rate of
population growth (Bai and Dent, 2006).
The economic contribution of the ASAL’s
agricultural sector has continued to fall
from 30 per cent to 20 per cent of the
national Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
primarily due to soil degradation. In
Mwea, this is due to intensive and
continuous cereal mono-cropping with
minimal organic inputs; while in Bura, it is
as a result of salinization (Muchena,
2008, GoK, 2009, 2012). Also, the feed
value chain supports only 0.28 per cent of
the GDP and its production continues to
decline due to the slow growth rate of the
feed production industry estimated at 300
thousand metric tonnes (MT) in 2003
growing to only 570 thousand MT in
2018, low germplasm of drought-tolerant
crops, and limited crop farming due to
extended drought under erratic low
rainfall. This has resulted in reduced
livestock population head in the ASALs
from 75 per cent to 60 per cent of
national livestock between 2009 and
2019.
Following the Maputo Declaration 2006,
Malabo Declaration 2014 and the
publishing of Kenya's Vision 2030, and the
United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals, Kenya is expected to achieve an
agricultural growth rate of 6 per cent per
annum through an increase in the utilization
of land, water resources, and in the rate of
fertilizer application from 8 kilogrammes per
hectare (Kg/Ha) to 50 Kg/Ha, including use
of organic fertilizers. Negative environmental impacts associated with chemical
fertilizers, however, remain a problem due
to groundwater pollution by nitrate fertilizers
and low germplasm of drought-tolerant
legumes. An innovative upgraded
technology for production of biochar, a
carbonized form of organic waste generated by recycling in limited oxygen and
heat, for soil amendment to improve soil
health (nutrient stock and flows) in addition
to the cultivation of locally available
germplasm with traits for drought tolerance,
can effectively address the constraints of
food production in degraded soils resulting
in a substantial increase in
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Recycling rice-husk waste into biochar may increase soil nitrogen and phosphorus availability Biochar has the potential to improve soil productivity and agronomic yield and nutritional quality of D. lablab in rotational farming with cereals in Mwea and Bura. Biochar may reduce salttoxicity as proved with Bura soil