Published in Jan 2020
Recycling rice-husk waste into biochar may increase soil nitrogen and phosphorus availability Biochar has the potential to improve soil productivity and agronomic yield and nutritional quality of D. lablab in rotational farming with cereals in Mwea and Bura. Biochar may reduce salttoxicity as proved with Bura soil.
The prevalent constrain of food insecurity in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) continue to worsen due to deteriorating soil health and increasing rate of population growth (Bai and Dent, 2006). The economic contribution of the ASAL’s agricultural sector has ontinued to fall from 30 per cent to 20 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) primarily due to soil degradation. In Mwea, this is due to intensive and continuous cereal mono-cropping with minimal organic inputs; while in Bura, it is as a result of salinization (Muchena, 2008, GoK, 2009, 2012). Also, the feed value chain supports only 0.28 per cent of the GDP and its roduction continues to decline due to the slow growth rate of the feed production industry estimated at 300 thousand metric tonnes (MT) in 2003 growing to only 570 thousand MT in 2018, low germplasm of drought-tolerant crops, and limited crop farming due to extended drought under erratic low rainfall. This has resulted in reduced livestock population head in the ASALs from 75 per cent to 60 per cent of national livestock between 2009 and 2019.