Biochar, Urban Farming and Drip Irrigation

Urban Farming in Chicago, US

Efforts for food self-sufficiency must be done in various ways including overcoming the limitations of agricultural land that occur due to use for settlement / housing. In line with this FAO also launched a zero hunger or free hunger for the world population in 2030. The package was formulated in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) consisting of 17 targets including the zero hunger. The narrowness of urban land is not an obstacle to participate in the fulfillment of these food needs. Agriculture in cities has also begun to flare up today, both in developed economic countries such as the United States and Europe as well as in a number of major cities in Indonesia. Urban farming attracts a lot of urban residents because in addition to adequate food, as well as relaxation and tourism. Currently approximately 50% of urban residents who work to get food sufficient so it will also be greatly helped by doing urban agricultural activity. High levels of congestion, air pollution, and various other common social factors in urban areas become stressful and make urban farming activities a place to relieve stress or relaxation. Especially in the next few years the population of Indonesia in particular, predicted the percentage of people who live in the city far more than those living in the village.

Efficiency becomes the keyword for agriculture on such limited land, both media efficiency, water efficiency, maintenance efficiency, fertilizer efficiency and so on which is now termed into precision farming. The world needs food additions of up to 70% to 2050 while the land continues to decrease, as does the quality of the water and the air. So precision farming and IoT (Internet of Things) can be a great solution for that. For example the idea of ​​precision agriculture and IoT on palm oil plantations can be read here. Various efforts are used to achieve the best level of precision one of them with the use of internet or IoT. Biochar or charcoal from biomass can be used for efficiency of planting medium, fertilizer and water. The biochar pores will retain water and fertilizer and become the site of the decomposing bacteria so that it is more available to the plant and ultimately increases the yield productivity. The next water efficiency is by drip irrigation. The water requirement on the plant is basically needed continuously although the amount is small. Drip irrigation is able to do so in the roots of the plant. The mechanism is similar to fertilization, ie slow release fertilizer and with biochar the release mechanism can be achieved, so as with the use of drip irrigation in irrigation, effective and high efficiency can be achieved as well. Mulch can also help improve the efficiency of water use by reducing evaporation and cooling the soil surface temperature.

Then how rural people if urban already able to meet the needs of food, especially vegetables? Keep in mind that vegetables that are in urban areas today come from a place far away even hundreds of kilometers away. Of course in addition to expensive transportation costs are also vegetables are not really fresh, because from harvesting, transportation, until the market up to the buyer usually takes more than 2 days. When the vegetables can be produced in urban areas that are very close to the buyer then the expensive costs can be avoided and vegetables are also fresh because it has just been picked. The rural community will be the producer of seeds from the vegetables. Seeds of vegetables in the form of grains will be easy and cheap transportation. Seeds for the seedlings are expensive to provide an attractive income for the producers of these

The vast lands in the countryside can also be planted with various kinds of fruit trees and various farms such as sheep grazing. Fruits will be a source of vitamins, sheep and livestock as a source of protein, and vegetables as a source of fiber and minerals, so that everything is complementary. Besides the vast lands in the countryside even in hilly or mountainous areas can also be used for energy plantations. Biomass fuel, especially wood pellet can be for substitution of various fossil fuels, especially petroleum and coal. Plants such as calliandra and gliricidae are great for the energy plantations, and even be integrated with sheep farms like the 5F project scenario for the world! The current condition of Indonesia that has become a petroleum importer should also encourage the use of energy from biomass especially wood pellets by promoting energy plantations. Energy development using energy plantations or trees are also in accordance with the Qur'an, for more details can be read here. Then man is commanded to prosper the earth (QS 11:61), to be told how to live the dead earth (QS 36:33), to be told how to fertilize it (QS 22: 5), how to maximize its crop yield (QS 16:10 -11), and even modeled on the success of good earth management (QS 34:15).

Do energy plantations need to be added with biochar? The answer is not necessary because the energy plantations uses leguminoceae (QS 36: 33) which can even turn the dead soil with its root ability by binding nitrogen from the atmosphere. Over time the land will become fertile, and can be used for various other farms. Biochar is suitable for increasing the productivity of various agricultural crops, especially outside the leguminoceae crop. More specifically for a variety of urban and palm oil agriculture, high soil fertility is needed.

The Role of Biochar In Era of Precision Farming and IoT in Palm Oil Plantations

Palm oil is not native to Indonesia but it is from West Africa and originally brought by Dutch colonialists. Initially only 4 palm oil seedlings were planted in the Bogor Botanical Garden but now they have been planted into plantations with an area of ​​nearly 9 million hectares, while Malaysia 5 million hectares. Currently Indonesia is the world's largest producer of palm oil, beating Malaysia with CPO production of more than 23 million tonnes / year with the number of oil palm mills reaching more than 600. Right now approximately 1,100 palm mills in Southeast Asia, and majority in Indonesia and Malaysia. Palm oil and its derivative products have become the largest foreign exchange earners of the plantation sector for Indonesia. The palm oil and its derivative products are divided into several groups namely CPO (crude plam oil), refined products of CPO, palm kernel oil (PKO), refined products of PKO, biodiesel and oleo-chemical. Naturally, palm oil business is a concern for many parties because of its role in the economic sector, which includes agriculture, industry and trade. The optimization of palm oil business continues to be done continuously for the sustainibility.

Palm Oil Monument in Bogor Botanical Garden, West Java, Indonesia

Optimalization in the agricultural sector, now it is time for  Indonesia for doing intensification so that palm oil productivity can be improved. When efficiency is increased, productivity will increase as well as the profits of the palm oil business. Precision farming and internet use (IoT = Internet of Things) are timed for use in the palm plantations. With precision farming and IoT, the need or dose of palm oil fertilizers or nutrients will be adjusted as needed, and real time soil fertility conditions and various agricultural variables can also be viewed and monitored carefully with apps or websites. The advantages and disadvantages of fertilizers or nutrients of both macro elements such as NPK and micro elements such as Fe, Mn, B, Mo, Cl, Cu, Zn in certain zones of oil palm plantations can be immediately detected, as well as various disturbances in oil palm plantations such as drought, wild pigs, pests and so on. The sensors installed in the palm oil plantation will then work with telemetry so all the data can be displayed on the screen to be analyzed and searched for the solution.

Isn't the palm oil area tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands hectares area? How to monitor and process the data? The more sensors installed in the palm oil plantations , the conditions will be more accurate reported. If we visit a modern chemical plant with sophisticated control room, see dashboard in cockpit plane or car dashboard and so then operational condition can be monitored easily. The more sophisticated the vehicle or factory then the look in the 'control room' is also more complete and sophisticated. So that's how to monitor the 'operating conditions' of the palm oil plantation with tens or even hundreds of thousands of hectares. Without knowing the condition of the plantation is like a driver driving in the 'dark', gasoline run out do not know, the engine overheating is also not known and so forth. Of course that is a high risk, many palm oil plantation failed or a lack of production due to various things 'dark' is. Thousands of data with many varieties of plantation condition then be collected and with big data can be mapped and analyzed for mapping also for the solution.

Soil fertility is vital to the farm / plantation business more specifically in palm oil plantations, so the effort to continue to maintain soil fertility should receive great attention. Of course there are many ways to continue to keep the soil fertility, including fertilization, the use of charcoal (biochar) and sheep grazing. Charcoal (biochar) is proven to increase soil fertility by keeping soil moisture, a microbial soil, retaining leaching, increasing soil pH, adding soil organic carbon and improving soil structure. Even with regard to climate change and the environment, the soil (biochar) that is introduced to the soil also absorbs carbon from CO2 from the atmosphere (carbon sequestration). Biochar can also survive hundreds or even thousands of years in the soil so that the benefits are very long.

There are several scenarios to produce biochar on palm oil business. Solid waste from palm oil mills such as empty bunches (EFB), fiber and shell can be used for the production of biochar. Simple to most advanced technologies can be utilized for the production of the biochar. On a large scale or industrial biochar production using continuous pyrolysis (carbonization) technology such as JFBC. The continuous pyrolysis or carbonization may be part of the palm oil mill or CPO production as can be read here or stand alone eg using only EFB as the raw material of the pyrolysis. The high cost of fertilization or efforts to maintain soil fertility so that biochar applications have a high level of urgency as described here.

Other efforts to maintain the soil fertility of palm oil plantations with sheep grazing. Why sheep grazing can fertilize the land of palm oil plantations? Yes, because when sheep are grazed among palm oil plantations also dump the dirt in the place, so the grass between the palm oil plantation should is not eradicated but maintained for the farm business. The sheep dung become fertilizer that fertilizes the soil. Why for sheep grazing? Why not grazing cattle or buffalo? This is because sheep farms produce more meat than cows or buffalo. The lamb/sheep is the best meat and is the world healthiest food, which is grass-fed sheep or shepherded on the grass. Grass-fed sheep will produce Omega-6 to Omega 3 ratio (O6 / O3 ratio) ranging from 1 or balanced. The Omega-6 ratio to Omega 3 states that the quality of food is in terms of health, with a range of 1 at its best or a balanced condition whereas if the O6 / O3 ratio is greater then the lower the quality of the food. Meanwhile, if big livestock such as sheep are fed grains such as soybean-based O6 / O3 ratio will be big ie 13 or more. High O6 / O3 ratio will spur the onset of heart disease, cancer and other cardiovascular diseases.The second driving force is the low consumption of meat for Indonesian which according to FAO is only 12.9 kg / year / capita or below the world average reaching 41.9kg / year / capita. The population of Indonesia with the consumption of sheep meat is very minimal or only 1/20 than the population of Australia and New Zealand but it turns the ratio of heart attacks and strokes is much higher or about 3 times the population of Australia and New Zealand. This proves that there is no relation to the consumption of sheep meat with heart disease or stroke - which is the animal of choice in the Qur'an and the shepherding of these Prophets! Sheep needs for export market especially Middle East and Saudi Arabia especially during haj season is also very high, around 8 million/year. Sheep dung will also be distributed more evenly in the palm oil plantation. Sheep breeding in the palm oil plantation will also increase profits for the palm oil plantation business itself. Even because of the vastness of palm oil plantations reaching 9 million hectares, the potential benefits are also tremendous.

As a Muslim, sheep animals also have significance. Why? In the Qur'an Surah Al An'am (6): 143-144 among eight animals in pairs (4 pairs) are two (one pair) sheep, a pair of goats, a pair of camels and a pair of cattle and sheep mentioned in the first order, of course this sheep has its own privileges, among others, sheep selected as the best animal qurban (QS Ash Shaaffaat (37): 107) and animals that are pastored by all prophets. By shepherding it among the palm oil trees, sheep farms are cheap because they feed on the grasses among the trees.

With the precision farming technology and IoT as tools applied to the palm oil plantations whose essence is to continuously monitor and maintain soil fertility and plantation maintenance by analyzing a number of variables related to the goal of optimizing palm oil production, the palm oil plantation will continues to be sustainable. Making all business activities of the palm is integrated and comprehensive with attention to environmental factors, good business management and take responsibility and with the utilization of latest technology in addition to a great opportunity to be a leader in this line of business is also the prosperity of the earth, such as the command of Allah SWT in the Qur ' An Surah Huud (11): 61.

Once Paddle 2 - 3 Islands Surpassed: Overcoming The Problem Of Palm Oil Mill Solid Waste As Well As Charcoal Production As Soil Fertilizers To Plantation And Export Commodities

There are 3 types of solid waste in palm oil mill, namely fiber, palm kernel shell and empty fruit bunch. The average amount of the three waste : 13.5% fiber, 5.5% palm kernel shell (PKS) and 23% EFB. The greater the CPO production capacity or the processing of FFB the greater the waste produced. Fiber and shell are commonly used for fuel by being burned directly for electricity production and steam for the production process of palm oil mill or CPO production. But with this way there is not much to gain except electricity, steam and ash as its residue. While a more beneficial way that is by replacing the usual combustion system (direct combustion) for steam and electricity production with continuous pyrolysis. Why with continuous pyrolysis can give greater benefits ? That is because with continuous pyrolysis besides being able to produce electricity and steam as well as on regular combustion also produced charcoal. Charcoal can be used for soil fertilizer media in palm oil plantation itself and as an export commodity that is palm kernel shell (read the problem of palm kernel shell at this time here).

While EFB can be processed into compost or fuel such as pellets and briquettes, some even use EFB to make paper, or just taken the ashes with burned because it is rich in potassium. Continuous composting is also more efficient, faster and cleaner than composting in batches. The compost can then be used in conjunction with charcoal so that its use to improve soil fertility optimally. Burning the EFB for its potassium-rich ashes is pretty much done by today's palm oil mills. It is chosen because it is easy, cheap and fast. But for use as fuel there is another option that is to make it into pellets or briquettes. One of the EFB processing scenarios can be read here. The choice of EFB processing above depends on the vision of the palm oil company itself, if its vision is more to increase productivity of palm oil plantation and CPO production even to organic plantation then composting is more suitable to choose, moreover EFB also very wet when out of palm oil mill. Whereas if their vision to get more profit or additional income faster by processing it into energy or fuel such as pellets and briquettes would be more suitable.

Why is charcoal preferred for soil fertility improvement? Is charcoal better than burning ash in that case? The process of making charcoal through the process of pyrolysis or carbonization with temperatures ranging from 400-500 C so that a number of ash chemical compounds, such as potassium still in the solid product in the form of charcoal or not lost during the conversion process, so that can still be used for plant nutrition. Charcoal also has a lot of micro pores to hold soil moisture, microbial house and keep the nutrients or fertilizer because the plants washed out ( leaching) due to the flow of water like rain. Rainfall in Indonesia is quite high ie 2700 mm / year or three times higher than the world rainfall ranging around 900 mm / year. Only two of our neighbors are Malaysia (2,875 mm) and Papua New Guinea (3,140) whose rainfall surpasses Indonesia. Charcoal also makes fertilizer or nutrient plants release slowly (slow release fertilizer) to be absorbed by plants. More and more use of charcoal in the palm oil plantation will have a positive impact on the productivity of Palm oil. If every hectare of palm oil plantations requires 20 tons of charcoal then the need for charcoal is also great. We take the example with the area of ​​100,000 hectares of palm oil plantation then the overall need for palm oil plantation reaches 2,000,000 tons. This can only be done gradually as CPO production activities. A number of studies have even stated that with the use of charcoal, the need for fertilizer can be reduced or saved up to 50%. That's because with the use of charcoal, the washed water plant nutrient in the soil can be minimized. Of course a happy thing. Moreover, the charcoal will survive hundreds of years on the ground so that the benefits last long. Such characteristics make charcoal superior to ash. Ash with various ash-chemical compounds such as potassium can be directly absorbed by plants so that it can be used as fertilizer until the nutrients in the ash are exhausted. Therefore conversion of solid waste from palm oil mill to charcoal is preferred.

Why choose the process of pyrolysis to process solid waste of palm oil mill ie palm kernel shell and fiber by replacing direct combustion process? Why not choose gasification to process the waste? In the gasification only produced a little charcoal so it is not sufficient. Technically, the palm kernel shell and fiber can be mixed as well as when fed as fuel in direct combustion, then fed to pyrolyser or carboniser, then charcoal is separated, ie charcoal from fiber and charcoal from palm shells based on material size difference. Small-sized charcoal from fiber like powder so it is suitable and can be directly used for plantations, while the larger-sized palm kernel shell charcoal such as granules. The palm kernel shell charcoal can then be used for fuel or other industrial raw materials such as activated charcoal.

The processing of solid waste of palm oil mill namely, palm kernel shell and fiber will give more benefit if using continuous pyrolysis technology. While EFB can be made compost or solid fuel such as pellets and briquettes. The charcoal applied to the plantation will improve soil fertility, as nutrients are more available and are not easily discharged or washed out due to water flow. There are more than 600 palm oil mills in Indonesia and nearly half of the world's CPO demand is supplied from Indonesia (23 million tons of CPO annually) and palm oil plantation area around 9 million hectares, so efforts to maintain the sustainability of the business are essential. Solid waste processing of palm oil mill in the form of palm kernel shell and fiber with pyrolysis and EFB for compost production and compacted (densification) into pellets and briquettes, necessary and important for various benefits as mentioned above.