Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts 2009A828
Biochar application in Tamil Nadu
and the global food crisis
UTRA MANKASINGH
1
, POON-CHUNG CHOI
1
AND VALA RAGNARSDOTTIR
2
1
Dept.
of Earth Sciences, Univ.
of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ,
UK (*correspondence:...
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Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts 2009A828
Biochar application in Tamil Nadu
and the global food crisis
UTRA MANKASINGH
1
, POON-CHUNG CHOI
1
AND VALA RAGNARSDOTTIR
2
1
Dept.
of Earth Sciences, Univ.
of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ,
UK (*correspondence: Utra.
Mankasingh@bristol.
ac.
uk)
2
School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Univ.
of
Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland (vala@hi.
is)
The global food crisis is affecting Tamil Nadu, Southern
India because of soil degradation and increased prices of
fertilisers and pesticides.
The plot-scale evaluation of biochar
application to the agricultural soils is presented here to
investigate its potential in improving soil fertility and crop
yield.
Biochar is an excellent soil amendment for sequestering
carbon, for increasing organic carbon and water retention as
well as providing habitat for microbes.
Biochar also adds
some macro- (P, K, N, Ca, Mg) and micronutrients (Cu, Zn,
Fe, Mn) which are needed for sustainable agriculture.
Twelve soil plot
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