Farmers with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, as well as a private grower in Tekoa, Washington, will work with scientists using biochar on their lands while growing rotations of hemp, wheat, corn, chickpeas, and other crops. Collaborators at WSU, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the University of Connecticut will study and model the resulting effects on crop properties, the ecosystem, emissions, and soil health.
A private company, Yard Stick PBC, is also taking part, developing a spectrometer probe, real-time soil analysis, and learning models to accurately measure different forms of carbon in the soil.
“Biochar’s role in the rapid, durable decarbonization of agricultural supply chains is very promising,” said Chris Tolles, Yard Stick CEO. “Our mission is to activate soils for climate and agricultural impact. We are thrilled to provide soil carbon measurement expertise to this innovative project and are grateful to the Department of Energy for their leadership.”
Work will begin this spring when researchers apply biochar to the fields. Resembling charcoal, biochar raises pH and moisture and helps improve poor or polluted soils. Its biggest effect, Gang says, comes from the microbes that thrive in its honeycomb of tiny chambers.
“It’s an interface for many of the electrochemical reactions occurring between soil microbes, helping them take up minerals and nutrients that they provide to plants,” Gang said. “That allows the plants to grow better and yield more bountifully.”
To grow, plants pull carbon from the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Biochar captures that carbon in a form that can endure for centuries if not millennia in soil — one naturally formed piece was discovered to be over 7,000 years old.
Grown for fiber, bioenergy, food, and construction materials, hemp drives deep roots that prevent erosion and break up compacted soils, aiding future crops’ access to water and nutrients while removing harmful chemicals like lead.
“Hemp helps the next year’s crop have a better root system,” Gang said. “We’re using plants to bring the soil back to a healthier state.”
The team will evaluate the effects of two separate hemp rotations and more than a dozen different biochar treatments, including varied application amounts and combinations of encapsulated biochar and time-release fertilizer.
“By putting hemp and biochar together in the soil, we can use less fertilizer,” Gang said. “This combination of treatments will give plants better access to nutrients, save huge costs in energy and labor, and decrease environmental impact.”
Seeking tools to regenerate poor soils, such as the sandy varieties found on parts of the Colville Reservation or northwest farmland soils affected by long-term cultivation and erosion, Gang is excited by the alliance of hemp and biochar.
“We need soil that sustains our ability to feed ourselves,” he said. “This is something I need to do for my grandkids and my grandchildren’s grandchildren.”
Source : wsu.edu