Repurposing organic matter to improve soil fertility could be a game-changer for rural communities, measured and confirmed via an extensive community-led project funded by the One Basin CRC. That’s according to the Project Lead Roger Knight, Executive Officer of the Western Murray Land Improvement Group.

Repurposing agricultural waste, timber byproducts, and other organic matter could be repurposed into a high-quality fertiliser, called biochar, to improve soil health, soil carbon and water retention.

“Biochar is a product similar to charcoal and is produced by heating organic matter in a controlled process with limited oxygen, called pyrolysis,” Roger Knight said.

“Industries such as timber production or agriculture are left with byproducts such as sawdust, crop stalks, or manure which can be modified into a charcoal form and mixed with other components to create compost,” Mr Knight said.

“Assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that biochar could mitigate up to 6.6 billion tonnes of CO2 globally by 2050, so the impact could be enormous and there is a growing interest in researching its potential,” he said.

“The production of biochar could be huge for agriculture; by reducing a farmer’s need to employ inorganic fertilisers and improving soil health such as in water retention, aeration, and carbon sequestration.”

“As water becomes an increasingly variable resource, biochar could play an important role in providing water savings. For every 1 percent you increase the soil carbon through using biochar, you increase the water holding capacity of your land by 10 to 30 tonnes per hectare,” Roger Knight said.

“So not only are you reducing your emissions, you’re also saving time, money, and water,” Mr Knight said.

The project started from the ground-up and was a wholly community-led venture across the southern Murray-Darling Basin following a co-design process in which communities identified areas of interest for future research; including biochar.

“We wanted to explore whether there was a community interest in the production of biochar, and how a production industry could be created, as well as investigating potential barriers,” Roger Knight said.

“We began by building a regional network across 26 different entities through the Murray-Darling Basin Economic Diversification Program, which involved four cluster groups meetings across 45 attendees, where 26 industries and businesses attended,” Mr Knight said.

“We brought on experts such as ANZ Biochar to facilitate some information exchange on the quantification of waste streams, the process of pyrolysis, and the benefits and ongoing research into biochar,” he said.

“I also attended a trial site in South Australia to learn first-hand how other organisations, such as Landscapes SA, are trialling biochar on farms, alongside also learning how to make biochar using a cone kiln by not for profit group Maccy Biochar.”

“All-in-all this was a co-design process that involved government agencies, timber producers, farmers, manufacturers, researchers, and First Nations – such as representatives of Moama Local Aboriginal Land Council,” Roger Knight said.

“The community had heard of the benefits it posed, such as nutrient transfer and improving productivity; and they wanted to learn more and consider production and trial options in the future,” Roger Knight said.

“This network helped us identify the necessary industry connections needed to establish a biochar industry, where co-benefits could be made, and what barriers might exist for end users and producers,” Mr Knight said.

“The subsequent network we had built was an extremely useful outcome as well. It opened opportunities for other collaborations, such as employing local First Nations people to assess how both timber byproducts and natural fallen timber are causing environmental issues and to determine its potential as feedstock for biochar production to reduce the impact on environmental areas,” he said.

“These timber by-products have a variety of other uses with First Nations people and can be adapted as a fuel source or burnt in cultural burning. This would also have the added benefit of avoiding log jams blocking waterways and affecting flood plain dynamics, while also protecting cultural sites.”

Roger Knight hopes that the networks built on funding from the One Basin CRC can lead to creating bespoke products to suit a range of end-user needs, through trial work and research assistance.

Some of these needs could include feasibility of processing different biomass feedstocks, such as rice straw, testing and optimising production processes, and mixes with composts, livestock feed additive to reduce methane emissions, and more.

To achieve this, the project team need to trial soil types, biochar products, lease or purchase pyrolysis equipment, and explore how a biochar industry could be established in regional Australia.

“We’ve started the first phase by building the initial network across the Southern Basin, thanks to the CRC and program funding. Now, we’re hoping to research this further and investigate the adaptive benefits, like testing across different soil types, environments, and industries, and commencing a production trial,” Roger Knight said.

“What’s great about this project is that it’s not someone telling communities they need to adopt it. This has been community-led from the beginning,” Mr Knight said.

“This partnership is an example of how these connections link across a spectrum of industries and interests to achieve something positive for the whole region,” he said.

“The research we have been conducting wouldn’t have been possible without the consortium of interests working together and finding ways to trial this innovation in future iterations of this project.”

Goondiwindi Regional Hub Manager Marti Beeston echoed the boosts to communities, highlighting the important role this collaboration holds within the CRC.

“Place-based research undertaken in collaboration – not just consultation – with industry is a core theme in how the CRC operates,” Marti Beeston said.

“The biochar project is yet another example that building relationships in the community is a practice that pays off and only strengthens the quality of research and outcomes,” Ms Beeston said.

“Conducting research in our regional southern Basin communities is also special. Having partners engage in these areas outside of capital cities supports the regions to build new economies and develop critical industries from manufacturing to agriculture,” she said.

“This project is only the start of the collaboration we have across almost 90 partners; and growing. We’re excited for the future and continuing to strengthen these partnerships between industries and researchers.”