Philippine Biochar Association

New Philippine Biochar Association announcement...

"We are a relatively new organization that we formed a year ago in March 2011. We organize farmer members of the Irrigators' Associations in the Philippine countryside to produce and use biochar on riceland. We create a collaborative network at the town or municipal level between the Local Government, a local NGO, and the Irrigators' Association, and we ask them to measure and record each soil integration of biochar, issuing a certificate for every 1.1 tons of biochar integrated in riceland. We use these certificates to issue carbon offset credits in the local market for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ISR (Individual Social Responsibility).
 
Currently we have two biochar networks in the province of Zambales with about 1,000 farmer members each. The biochar is made by the farmers from rice hull which is plentiful in the Central Luzon rice growing areas. We have the first network in the town of Botolan, training the other network in the town of Palauig. The Botolan network has a production capacity of 3 tons of biochar per day during production period, and has issued 35 biochar integration certificates to date. We have already sold the carbon credits from those certificates as ISR in the local market. 60% of the proceeds are given to the town network.

Please check out our website at www.philippinebiocharassociation.com."

Recent Research on Biochar’s Potential in Soils

The following link leads to an article from Thayer Tomlinson, published by the Ecological Landscaping Association.
http://www.ecolandscaping.org/05/biochar/recent-research-on-biochar%E2%80%99s-potential-in-soils/
"... Until recently, it was believed that biochar’s beneficial soil impacts were seen primarily in soils with significant constraints, but two recent publications examine its impact on more fertile Midwestern agricultural soils, showing that biochar can benefit even healthy, fertile soils..."