[Stoves] ***SPAM*** Cooking with crop waste (less smoke and makes biochar) and burning crop waste in the field (less smoke and makes biochar) - New training video

[K McLean]

Here is a new training video that we have started disseminating in Africa:
https://youtu.be/DmzQFCp2kNI

It shows how to cook using crop waste as fuel while making biochar using
the new AgWa (Agriculture Waste) cookstove.  Dig a 25x25x25 cm hole in the
middle of a three-stone cookstove.  Cut maize stalks and layer them in the
hole with each layer facing a different direction (criss crossed layers).
The pile should continue above ground about 10 cm.  Light the pile on the
top.  It will slowly burn down to the bottom.

The fire burns hot and clean without tending for 30-45 minutes.  If the
embers are quenched with a little water, biochar is made.  The advantages
of this method over the traditional use of wood are many:
     1. Less firewood collection.  Women and children spend many hours a
week collecting firewood, wasting time and subjecting themselves to
assault and animal attacks.  This allows them to collect their fuel from
their farms.
     2. Less deforestation.
     3. Less time tending the fire.  Open fire cooking with wood requires
almost constant tending.  This batch-fed method can be lit and ignored so
women can attend to other matters.  Importantly, they and their children
can get away from a smokey fire.
     4. Less climate damage.  Crop waste is renewable.  Less smoke probably
means less black carbon.  And many farmers burn their crop waste in the
field in ways that are very smokey.  If they use the biochar as a soil
amendment, they will sequester carbon.
     5. Less indoor and outdoor air pollution.
     6. Improved crop production.

The training video also demonstrates how to burn crop waste in the field in
a cleaner way that makes biochar.  Many farmers burn their crop waste by
making large piles and lighting the piles on the side.  The crop waste is
allowed to burn to ash in a cloud of smoke.  By lighting the piles on top,
the fire is much cleaner.  And if the embers are quenched (dirt or water),
biochar is made.

The training video then demonstrates how to charge biochar with human urine
and apply it in the field.

We left out rice straw because we have not been able to fully test it.  Our
tests are consistent that the top-down burn method in the field works with
rice straw.  I am less sure about rice straw in the AgWa cookstove.

I hope some of you can test these methods since crop waste is available now
in much of the world.

Kevin McLean
Sun24
kevin at sun24.org
+1 813 505 3340
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