Agriculture Minister, Joe Ludwig, has announced five research projects which will share in $2 million of funding to investigate ways farmers can participate in the Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative using biochar to reduce their carbon emissions.

The successful applicants are:

• James Cook University which will investigate the relationship between common biochar feedstock types and pyrolysis conditions to the proportion of stable carbon in the resultant biochar.
• The CSIRO which will establish a large number of high quality biochar demonstration sites to demonstrate the applicability of biochar in a broad range of agricultural and land management situations.
• The North East Catchment Authority which will produce biochar from woody weeds, establish a number of biochar field sites and trials and will communicate the benefits of biochar to farmers,
• Monash University which will demonstrate the potential of biochar and biochar/compost blends to increase soil carbon in native woody bioenergy crops. and
• The South Australian No Till Farmers Association which will demonstrate how degraded dairy pastures in the Lower Murray can be transformed by integrating a biochar management system.