On 18 December 2017, Sebastian Dumler, a student of Environmental Engineer who is helping APRODES with the dissemination of the knowledge on biochar in San Ramon, conducted a workshop on biochar production in the farm of Rogelio, one of our most motivated farmers in Peru. Sebastian was a student of Dr Brenton Ladd, the local coordinator of the B4SS project, and his thesis is based on the biochar research work he conducted for the B4SS. Nine people, mostly Rogelio’s neighbours, attended the workshop. They all showed interested in learning more about producing biochar by themselves in order to use it to improve their crop yield.

Rogelio previously gathered some wood from coffee and Inga (Pacay) tree prunings to use as feedstock for biochar production. The Pacay tree, a nitrogen fixer, is commonly used as a shade tree for coffee and cacao, and is well adapted to red acidic infertile soils, typical of the lowland humid tropics of the Amazon forest. Rogelio made sure that the feedstock was covered and dry for the day of our workshop. This was very important, especially in December during the rainy season. Sebastian and farmers all contributed to the construction of the soil pit. The production of biochar was reported to be clean since the wood was very dry, and it only took them around 2 hours to complete the task. The next step for Sebastian is to show the farmers how to apply biochar to their land.