Biochar for Agribusiness

Fertilizers are typically around 40% efficient— more than half of applied nutrients are lost to leaching, volatilization, or other factors. Biochar’s high porosity and surface area, retain nutrients, reduce nitrogen losses, increase microbial activity, and improve soil structure, all contributing to more nutrient uptake. Studies have shown it can enhance NUE by at least 12%. (Hossain et. al 2020, Khan et. al 2023, Li et. al 2023) This increased efficiency allows growers to initially use around 20% less fertilizer for the same agronomic benefit. (Gao, Y et al 2022) Thereafter, growers can use even less fertilizer as the health of the soil microbiome improves.

Biochar’s highly porous structure creates a greater surface area for water to adhere and in turn, high surface area increases its adsorption capacity and allows it to infiltrate the soil without leaching or pooling. This increases the seasonal availability of water which improves drought resilience and reduces irrigation costs. Dumroese et al. (2022) showed substantial 38%, 19%, and 16% increase in plant-available water in coarse, medium, and fine soils, respectively, after biochar applications.

Microbial Biomass Carbon- the measure of carbon in living microbial biomass, is an indicator of soil health and microbial activity. Zhang and Wang (2024) report an MBC increase of 21.7% after applying biochar. The study also showed significant increases in key soil enzymes, that directly support microbial life through nutrient cycling. Together these increases indicate higher microbial activity and thus greater soil health (Daunoras et. al 2024).