[Stoves] [biochar] allAfrica.com: Africa: Biochar -Unfulfilled Promises in Cameroon

[Anand Karve]

Dear Alex,
the soil in our area is called vertisol, or black cotton soil. It has pH
values ranging from 8.5 to 8.7. The weathered derivative of this soil is
laterite, which is red in colour and it is formed under tropical high
rainfall conditions. The high rainfall leaches out a lot of things from the
soil, so our laterites are poor in phosphate, but rich in aluminium
(bauxite) and iron. I have devedloped the concept of applying small
quantities of high calorie organic material to the soil (about 25 kg sugar,
starch or proteins per hectare, or about 125 kg green leaves per hectare)
to increase the number of micro-organisms in the soil. This allows farmers
to conduct agriculture without any chemical fertilizers, because the
micro-organisms absorb the minerals in the soil and make them available to
plants. Literally thousands of farmers are following this practice and
getting good results. Farmers ask me about applying charcoal to their soil
and I advice them to try it out, but no farmer in our area has reported
success with application charcoal to his soil.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 10:35 PM, Alex English <english at kingston.net> wrote:

> Dear Anand,
> It is well documented how new drugs are often compared in trials to
> treatments that are not the best current treatment. Thus the not so
> surprising favorable results.
>
> Physicist Richard Feynman would ask to see the data, so he could draw his
> own conclusions, which could differ from the primary author.
> "*Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts"
>
> *What then is 'peer review'?
> *
> *So much of what we read about biochar sounds like a woefully inadequate
> recipe for curry. Just add spices.  Without differentiating char
> characteristics and the conditions of treatment soils, all we can conclude
> is further research is required, or go back and do it right. If you
> multiply those variables you can put a high quantity on 'expert ignorance'.
> Add a pinch of time span,and biology, then good and bad results become
> curiosities. Terra Preta  may be a fine wine now but what was it back then.
>
> Unburned Char can have value right now. Potting mix, sorption of nasties,
> crayons, even as insulation under hydronic heating lines. Physics and
> chemistry are quick. Biology is a chronic research pain that delights and
> confounds.
>
> Repeatedly we see reference to biochar being beneficial to 'highly
> weathered" tropical soils. Would you characterize any of the soils you
> added charcoal to as being "highly weathered"?
>
> Regards,
> Alex
> *
> *
> On 31/12/2011 12:14 AM, Anand Karve wrote:
>
> Dear Kevin, Crispin and Ron,
> I have been conducting experiments, off and on, for almost a decade on
> effect of charcoal applied to the soil. Most of the work consisted of very
> preliminary experiments, just to find out if application of charcoal gave
> positive results. I would have started a systematic study, if the
> preliminary results had indicated that this was a useful technology. I
> never got beyond the stage of preliminary experiments, because they did not
> reveal to me any beneficial effects on crop yield. I never reported the
> results in any formal publication, because the experiments were of a very
> preliminary nature, not conducted in statistically approved designs.
> Secondly, I want to say that It is generally the tendency among scientists
> to cite references that support one's findings. So picking and choosing
> of evidence that supports one's point of view is quite common in scientific
> publications.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
>
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
>
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://www.bioenergylists.org/
>
>
>


-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20120101/a1164947/attachment.html>