Farmer-to-Farmer Biochar Education and Demonstration Sites for Improved Soil Health Through Application of Locally Generated Biochar

Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: biological inoculants, nutrient cycling, nutrient management, other
• Education and Training: demonstration, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking, on-farm/ranch research, technical assistance, workshop
• Soil Management: composting, soil microbiology, soil quality/health, other

This project will empower small to medium farmers to incorporate biochar into their practices to improve soil health. Participants will learn the benefits of biochar for soil health and learn to generate and apply biochar made with locally available resources. Soil and compost-amended with biochar will be assessed using microscopy to demonstrate the beneficial impacts on soil biology.

Four locally manufactured Kon-Tiki model biochar kilns will be delivered to participating farms, with River Valley Regeneratives serving as one of the sites. The Technical Advisor and Project Coordinator will support the farmers to generate and apply biochar with locally available wood products. This will be achieved through one-on-one site visits and email/phone consultations.

Once each farmer becomes comfortable with the process, they will host one full-day workshop with the project team. The workshops will be open to all regional farmers and include a lecture followed by in-field participation. Local farmers will be notified of the workshops through listservs, farm support partners, participant social media accounts, and word of mouth. The project team will also develop educational resources which will be incorporated into existing toolkits of Compost for Good, the Composting Association of Vermont, and others. The project team will continue to host workshops and site visits past the project window.

Host farms will include a First Nation Akwesasne mixed vegetable and dairy farm, a mushroom and mixed vegetable farm owned by a first generation Latino American from Argentina, a permaculture practitioner, and a market garden focused on regenerating severely damaged soil.

We will increase biochar generation and application by New York North Country farmers by lowering current barriers to adoption. We plan to do this through on-farm trainings with four farmers in biochar generation and application, on-farm workshops for regional farmers conducted at the aforementioned farms, illustration of the impacts of biochar application on compost and soil microbiomes, a compilation of best practices into a single resource, and informational materials that we will share through the Compost for Good, and The Composting Association of Vermont’s on-farm tool kits as well as through Cornell Cooperative Extension networks. 

Our target audience is small to medium sized farmers in the NYS North Country region in St. Lawrence, Franklin, Essex and Clinton Counties. As a result of our workshops and educational materials, we will achieve the following objectives: 

1. The four farms provided Kon-Tiki kilns and trained in the generation and application of biochar will gain advanced knowledge, experience and capacity to generate and apply biochar with regionally available resources.
2. Through regional workshops, we will increase the number of farmers aware of the potential benefits and techniques involved in generating and applying biochar to compost and soils. In addition, we will increase their capacity to generate and apply biochar with locally available resources on their own farms.
3. We will increase the accessibility of biochar-related information and resources for historically marginalized farmers by providing materials translated specifically for First Nation and Spanish-speaking communities, which will be made available for both in-person events and through toolkits available online.
4. By increasing our capacity to make biochar for our local community, and increasing our community’s awareness of biochar’s benefits, we will be able to expand markets for local soil health products, such as biologically robust compost, compost extracts, and woody byproducts, and generate a demand for locally-built biochar kilns.