0049 - BiocharIND

India produces more than 500 million tons of biomass annually. Most farm residue is left to decompose or is burnt, causing atmospheric pollution. Biochar is an elegant solution that simultaneously solves the problem of soil fertility and food poverty, while fighting climate change. We propose to rollout biochar through Rural Entrepreneurs in each village.

Heartfulness Institute has extensively used Biochar in the last 8 years to develop Kanha Shanti Vanam, a barren land of 1,400 acres into a green oasis. Today, Heartfulness uses biochar in developing 15,000 acres of afforestation projects across India. In the last year, we have setup 8 Artisan Biochar units, produced about 250 tons of biochar, ran research trials in 5 crops, and are currently running farmer trials with 170 cotton farmers in Gujarat and Madya Pradesh, generating carbon credits.

The need of the hour is to build this out for scale, evolve unit economics and create greater awareness in the market. Our proposal is to rollout biochar intervention integrated with other activities to drive a sustainable village model. across multiple villages. The scope of this intervention is:
•Run biochar trials on 300 – 500 acres in each village, touching 600 – 1,000 farmers
•Select 10 villages in 5-6 states in India across multiple crops and seasons
•Run farmer trials for 3 years
•Choose these villages to maximize Geographical, Climatic, Soil & Crop diversity.
•Partner with ICAR for impact assessment.

Heartfulness Institute is well connected to the Government of India and works closely with several State Governments. By setting up 10 model villages that extensively has applied biochar, we will be able to prove the impact of biochar at scale, reduce unit cost, work out unit economics, and influence policy makers, enabling recognition of this game-changing intervention and accelerating adoption across the country.  

Biochar is completely aligned with the goals of 4P1000 as it:

•Increases soil carbon

•Improves crop yield and farmer’s income

•Reverses climate change through permanent sequestration of Carbon in soil, lasting hundreds of years.

•India produces 600+ million tons of biomass annually – This represents an enormous potential for scale.

•Our approach to Biochar rollout combines it with Rural Entrepreneurship, positioning it as an alternative to fertilizer subsidies and solving the problem of invasive weeds taking over the forests of India.

This comprehensive positioning by an NGO, which is recognized as a leader in the environmental sector is compelling and potent.

Our partners collectively work with 3 Million farmers across India.

•UNCCD
•Indian Council of Agricultural Research
•Central Institute of Cotton Research
•Arvind Mills (Better Cotton Initiative Implementor), working with 60,000+ farmers
•Pratibha Syntex (Organic Cotton Accelerator Implementor), working with 30,000+ farmers
•Samunnati, which works with 6,500 Farmer Producer Organizations with 2.6 million farmers
•Ambuja Foundation (BCI Implementor, working with 200,000 farmers)
•Deshpande Foundation, (BCI Implementor, has promoted 1,000+ Rural Entrepreneurs)
•Carbon Agencies to generate Artisan Biochar Carbon Credits under Carbon Standards International (CSI) registry – We have already generated carbon credits
•Heartyculture, to rollout Biochar units for partners