Image courtesy of AGREEN1
In a new long-term study, scientists at Washington State University and partner institutions will explore how soil-boosting biochar and hemp affect key crops like wheat, corn, and chickpeas.
Funded by $5 million from the US Department of Energy, researchers will spend six years examining the effects of biochar, which is partially burned timber slash or crop waste that improves soil and stores carbon.
Farmers with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and 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. 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.
Biochar captures that carbon in a form that can endure for centuries if not millennia in soil. 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.
“We need soil that sustains our ability to feed ourselves. This is something I need to do for my grandkids and my grandchildren’s grandchildren,” said project leader David Gang, a fellow at WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry and director of the Center for Cannabis Policy, Research and Outreach (CCPRO).
