Biochar and Food & Energy Security

As the population increases, so does the need for food and energy. This is why food and energy production must also be increased. Increasing food production is closely related to the quality and quantity of land. However, although the quantity of land is very large, its quality tends to decline so that plant productivity automatically also decreases. The decline in land quality or land damage occurs on very large areas of land up to millions of hectares. With the area of ​​sub-optimal and degraded lands reaching hundreds of millions of hectares consisting of 122.1 million hectares of dry land; 8 million hectares of post-mining land; 24.3 million hectares of critical land; a total of around 154.4 million ha, it can be said that the potential loss of food products also reaches millions of tons. Meanwhile, damaged land will be further damaged if no repair efforts are made. Efforts to upgrade or improve the quality of this land should be an important priority in efforts to achieve food and energy security.

Biochar application is a solution for improving these lands. Raw materials for biochar production are also very abundant, including dry palm oil EFB of around 30 million tons/year, bagasse of 2 million tons/year, corn cobs of 5 million tons/year, cassava stalks of 3 million tons/year, waste wood of 50 million tons/year, rice husks of 15 million tons/year, cocoa shells and so on. With the application of biochar, agricultural productivity can increase by an average of 20% or even up to 100%. If applied on a macro or national scale, say with a 20% increase in production, for example, rice production will increase to 36 million tons/year from the previous 30 million tons/year, corn will increase to 18 million tons/year from the previous 15 million tons/year, crude palm oil or CPO to 60 million tons/year from the previous 50 million tons/year. This will save land use so that the opening of forest land for food crops and (bio)energy such as food estates may not be necessary or at least slow it down. But why until now has biochar not received attention and been used as a solution?

In addition, biochar production with pyrolysis will also produce a number of by-products that can be used for energy applications or others, as in the diagram above. Many agro-industries require drying in their production processes, so this is an additional advantage of using pyrolysis technology for biochar production. While from the environmental aspect, biochar is also a carbon sequestration so that it is a climate solution and can get carbon credit. Likewise in waste management, because the raw material for biochar is biomass waste from agriculture, plantations and forestry, even from organic waste, the pyrolysis and biochar business is also a solution to this problem.   

Increasing Food Agriculture Productivity: Biochar Application or Forest Clearing for Food Estate?

Indonesia currently ranks 69th out of 113 countries in 2022 in food security and this is lower than Malaysia and Vietnam with indicator points below the global average. This condition is concerning considering that Indonesia was once self-sufficient in food before and even the price of rice in Indonesia is the most expensive in ASEAN. Efforts to maintain food productivity are indeed a challenge, let alone increasing it. Along with increasing population growth, the need for food automatically increases. The condition of declining food production and productivity is related to a number of factors including land conversion to non-agricultural land, and soil / land damage. A number of regulations have been made to stem the rate of decline in food productivity due to these two things.

Regarding land damage, repair efforts need to be made so that agricultural productivity increases. It is estimated that the area of ​​land damage that occurs is very large with a high level of severity. This requires gradual and sustainable repair efforts with various strategies including improving farming patterns and even a number of incentives. Only with these efforts can the agricultural sector as a source of food be repaired or if not, the damage to agricultural land will get worse so that repair efforts will be more difficult.

Biochar application or forest clearing for food estate ?
Biochar application will be able to repair damaged lands. In addition to being a slow-release fertilizer agent so that fertilizer use becomes efficient and does not pollute the environment, increasing soil pH, increasing soil organic carbon and increasing agricultural productivity, biochar will also help overcome the management of agricultural waste that has so far polluted the environment. The increase in agricultural productivity from the use of biochar is on average around 20%. If Indonesia's current rice production is around 31 million tons per year, then the application of biochar will increase total rice production to 37.2 million tons (an increase of 6.2 million tons). With an average rice production per hectare of 6 tons, the increase of 6.2 million tons is equivalent to increasing the area of ​​agricultural land by 1.03 million hectares. Even damaged land from post-mining can be reclaimed and rehabilitated with the application of biochar, with the land area also reaching millions of hectares. This is certainly better than clearing new forest land for food estates because of its environmental impact. 

As the human population grows, the need for food and energy will continue to increase. Indonesia's population in 2045 is estimated to reach 319 million people and the world's population in 2050 is approaching 10 billion people. The need and urgency of biochar to improve soil quality is increasing. Tens of millions of hectares of all Indonesian acidic soils, which are classified as dry land acidic soils, need to be improved with biochar. This means that the business potential reaches billions of dollars or trillions of rupiah. Meanwhile, rice imports in 2024 are targeted to reach 3.6 million tons (as a buffer), a large amount. With an annual rice requirement of around 31 million tons, the contribution of imported rice reaches more than 10%.

Biochar in addition to repairing soil damage so that it increases its fertility which ultimately increases agricultural productivity is also part of the climate solution, namely by means of carbon sequestration. Biochar applied to the soil will last hundreds or even thousands years, and does not decompose. This is another advantageous factor for biochar producers, namely getting carbon credits. The quality of biochar will determine the acquisition or price of the carbon credit, so that the raw materials of biochar and its production process are affected. The price of carbon credits is increasing so that it is increasingly attractive and also the carbon credit market continues to grow.

Damage to land or agricultural land that occurs is mostly caused by excessive use of chemical fertilizers. If the use of chemical fertilizers can be reduced in dosage or with sufficient use, there will be improvements in land quality. Even if chemical fertilizers are gradually reduced in dosage and organic fertilizers / compost are increasingly added so that in the end chemical fertilizers are not used at all, soil fertility will be optimal as well as agricultural productivity.

The photo from here

Of course, this requires time and continuous effort. Livestock must also be encouraged so that compost / organic fertilizer can also be produced sufficiently from the processing of livestock manure. Integrated farming with livestock is the best solution for improving agricultural land with biochar, especially increasing the efficiency of fertilization. If the above can be implemented properly, then forest clearing for food estate land can also be slowed down / held back by considering all aspects comprehensively so that it is not a short-term solution that tends to be forced, and rushed because of the regime's image efforts even at a cost of hundreds of trillions.     

Biochar For Date Palm Plantations

Biochar is increasingly being used as a soil amendment with the aim of improving the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil, and reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. In date palm plantations which are mostly planted in dry and sandy areas, the use of biochar will especially increase the ability of water and nutrients holding capacity, meaning that the evaporation of groundwater can also be reduced and nutrient loss for date palms can also be reduced. This of course is very beneficial for the date palm tree. Waste from date palm plantations such as midribs, seeds and leaves can be used as raw material for the biochar. The impact or positive results of the use of biochar have been reported from enormous of studies and experiments. These results are improvements in the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil which ultimately result in the quality and productivity of the fruit yield.

 Every year, it is estimated that each date palm tree produces 33 kg of green waste or 20 kg of dry biomass waste. Currently, it is estimated that date palms around the world reach 120 million trees with a biomass waste potential of 4 billion tonnes of green waste or 2.4 billion dry and can be converted into biochar into 800 million tonnes of biochar. The 10 largest date producing countries are Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The use of modern pyrolysis equipment for processing biomass waste into biochar, also produces excess energy for heat or electricity production which can be used for various purposes. Location of date palm plantations in rural areas can use electricity or store this energy for other purposes such as cooking. The energy storage can be done with large or small tanks for the needs of residents in that location. By utilizing the excess energy from the pyrolysis process, environmental damage such as illegal logging can be minimized. Dry and arid are areas with high evaporation and low rainfall, and such areas as these occupy 41% of the land surface area on earth. Currently nearly 900 million people inhabit this area.

Improved soil quality will result in higher crop productivity. The better the quality of the soil that can be cultivated, the better the productivity will be. Biochar will enrich soil organic carbon which has important roles, including reducing plant nutrient loss, increasing soil aggregation, reducing soil erosion, and increasing water holding capacity. Each plant has its own characteristics regarding the growing medium and environmental condition. Improving the quality of the soil will certainly increase the productivity of dates and even increase the quality of the fruit.   

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.