What is biochar?
Biochar is produced during the pyrolysis of wood or farm waste, a process that applies heat without oxygen. Biochar is created at a much higher temperature than ordinary charcoal, making it more stable and porous, and allowing it to remain in the soil for hundreds of years. Ordinary charcoal decomposes within a couple of years, depending on climatic conditions.
Who came up with the idea of using it to enrich the soil?
It's thought to have originated around 2 000 years ago in the Amazon basin, when people produced it by charring organic waste in primitive ovens with a low supply of oxygen.
This special charcoal was added to (Portuguese for 'black earth'). It's said that a crop planted in can produce a yield up to four times greater than in any other soil, and local farmers who mine it claim that a given volume can double in size within 20 years if left undisturbed.
