From rhetoric to reality: farmer perspectives on the economic potential of biochar in China

Abstract

Biochar has garnered much attention for its potential to improve farming productivity and sustainability by amending soil, enhancing crop yields, improving fertilizer use efficiency and sequestering carbon. However, few publications consider farmer perspectives on whether biochar is attractive as an agricultural input. This paper therefore investigates the micro-economics and social suitability of biochar in four contrasting Chinese agricultural systems, using linear optimization models and qualitative contextual data. Results demonstrate that commercially produced biochar is uneconomic as an independent farming input, whilst farm-produced biochar shows promise in just one of four case-study sites. This suggests that biochar research in China should shift away from on-farm production and application of pure biochar, towards combined biochar-inorganic fertilizer products.

Keywords:

• Asia
• China
• biochar
• agriculture
• biomass
• economics

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor Pan Genxing at the Nanjing Agricultural University, the Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering and Meng Qingnan for their in-country support, and Stephen Joseph for his very helpful comments. The views expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by the Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security (PISCES) programme and the Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN), both funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It was also funded by the EPSRC (Science and Innovation Award) and Scotland's Rural College (SRUC).

Notes

1. One USD is equivalent to 6.25 Chinese yuan.

2. Although work is being done with biochar-stoves, these were not parameterized here because none of the case-study sites relied predominantly on biomass for cooking energy. Heilongjiang, Jiangsu and Henan used electricity, gas or coal, whilst households in Yunnan used biogas obtained from pig wastes. Additional information on biochar stoves is available in Whitman et al. (2011).