This article on the biochar for urban gardens published in the hans India.

1. The Hans India – News Paper
Let a thousand flowers bloom with ‘biochar’
The concrete jungle in which we ‘live’ these days makes everyone aspire for a
beautiful garden on the terrace or balcony with blooming flowers or kitchen
gardens that abound in luscious vegetables. Such gardens are no longer a big
deal if only people start using ‘biochar’. The Hans India’s correspondent Venu K
Kodimela digs deep into this natural soil nutrient.
In a concrete jungle everyone aspires for a beautiful garden with blooming flowers and
vegetables on terraces and balconies. Lack of time to water the plants regularly and
application of fertilizers and pesticides could make one to put off their plans indefinitely.
Biochar is a right solution for enriching fertility of soils and improving productivity of
plants through natural and sustainable process.
Dr Saibhaskar Reddy Nakka, founder of and CEO of Geoecology Energy Organisation
(GEO) has come up with ‘biochar’ for sustainable agriculture and allied activities.
Biochar is simply a mix of charcoal, farmyard manure,
soil microbes, vermicompost, mulch, micro-nutrients,
sand, gypsum, fertilizers, and silt are used to enhance
the fertility of the land.Farmers have been using
charcoal and ash as part of traditional and cultural
practices.
“The value of Biochar was known to man for centuries.
The evidence of the use of biochar for improving soil
fertility is found all over the world. “Terra Preta was
practiced for more than 5,000 years in the Amazon basin
even before the arrival of Europeans,” Dr Reddy
explained.
He pointed out that rural trash consisting of pottery shards, fish bones, compost etc was
added to the less fertile acidic soils in the rain forests to improve their fertility.“Biochar is
an excellent media for rooftop gardens. When added to the soil the density of the resultant
soil composition reduces, thereby lessens weight on the rooftop.”
The urine could be diluted and added to the plants for improved fertility. The biodegradable
garbage can be easily disposed off in the roof garden, the methane emissions are reduced
and composting is accelerated due to presence of higher density of soil life.
The earthworms density increases with about 3% to 5% of the biochar application. The
rooftop would be cooler due to these gardens as there is protection for direct sunlight. With
little water the gardens can be easily maintained as the soil moisture is retained.
Talking about traditional practices, Dr Reddy said the farmers burned crop residue in the
fields. In the process, the earth also gets burnt. Though this practice benefited the soils and
farmers for ages, it is no longer sustainable because of population growth and sustainability
of the forests.

2. “There is a need to create awareness among the farmers to continue traditional practices of
biochar application and also adopt appropriate technologies for improving the fertility of
the soils and their sustainability,” said, adding that biochar production and application
should be done locally rather than large scale production and dissemination.
Initially biochar is in capable of dissolving in water, but after few days of curing it looses
hydrophobicity to some extent. This property of biochar having two characters of liking
and not liking water makes it unique, for soil life, nutrients and minerals along with water
and air adsorbtion and circulation in the soil. The presence of water in charcoal / moisture
attracts many small insects, creatures and soil microbes to take shelter near or under
charcoal.
Dr Reddy is organizing exhibitions in the city to reach out to garden lovers. He may be
reached at saibhaskarnakka@gmail.com