Landell Mills and Nordic Development Fund host workshop about biochar sector

Landell Mills recently co-hosted a biochar workshop, along with the Nordic Development Fund (NDF). The workshop featured the production and utilisation of biochar as a soil amendment for climate-friendly agricultural production, as well as focussing on the replication and scaling up of the technology.

The event took place in Helsinki and facilitated lesson-sharing, with a view to increasing the impact of future biochar sector interventions. Landell Mills team drew on lessons learned from two NDF funded projects; Capacity Building for the Efficient Utilisation of Biomass for Bioenergy and Food Security in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) 2011-2015, and Mainstreaming Climate Change Risk Management in Development - Consultants for Sustainable Rural Ecology for Green Growth 2014-2016 in Nepal.

Attendees were also given the opportunity to take part in a demonstration of biochar making. Among many other benefits, the material contributes to climate change mitigation by storing carbon in the soil for hundreds of years, and it improves soil fertility and therefore food security.

Simon Foxwell, Landell Mills Asia Division Director, commented: "The biggest challenge now is to find how to scale up the use of this appropriate technology after the successful field trials. The Nepali authorities have been impressed by the trials, and they are keen to train more farmers. Practical brochures and leaflets have now been produced for local farmers, but there is still a need for support from donors for more extensive field trails across Nepal. We also believe that the lessons learnt from Nepal will help with the replication of this kind of project in other countries."

Find out more here.

The project has also received good national coverage and recently featured on BBC-Nepal including interviews with two farmers, the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agricultural Development. To listen to the feature, please click here.