Breaking Down Barriers to Biochar Adoption on Farms from Coast to Coast 

Project Purpose 

To break down barriers to biochar adoption by demonstrating regionally successful biochar integration on farms across the United States. The project’s overarching goals are to:

1. Support, demonstrate, and evaluate success of adoption on 34 farms across eight states in regionally important production systems.
2. Provide an innovative combination of financial and technical resources, assistance, and networks to participating producers and beyond to build capacity and momentum for broader adoption.
3. Facilitate source-market connections.   

Project Description 

There is no one silver bullet for building soil health and adapting to and mitigating climate   

change, but biochar can be a powerful tool in the Soil Health Toolbox. Biochar is a material added to soil to increase its carbon content and enhance fertility. It has significant yet unrealized potential. It not only adds carbon directly but also stabilizes the soil’s carbon pool for longer-term storage. As a result, biochar can improve soil health management systems, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and build more resilient agroecosystems.  

Breaking Down Barriers to Biochar Adoption on Farms from Coast to Coast, funded through a USDA-NRCS On-Farm Trials Conservation Innovation Grant, will leverage American Farmland Trust’s (AFT) regional on-the-ground programs and connections to farmers and implementation partners.  It will engage the organization’s interdisciplinary national team and national partners to break down regional and national barriers to biochar and soil carbon amendment applications, particularly when integrated into the context of broader soil health management systems transitions across the country. These systems include decreasing tillage, increasing cover cropping, and optimizing nutrient management, among other practices.  

AFT will coordinate across the agricultural and biochar production industry and facilitate access to financial and technical assistance, improved decision support tools, peer-to-peer networks, and source market connections in the efforts to expand biochar availability and usage.   

AFT will assess the impact of biochar-based amendments on soil organic carbon and soil health, economics, and social outcomes through demonstration trials that will be focused on diverse production systems in eight states: Washington, California, Nebraska, Illinois, Kentucky, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine. Participants working in these diverse production systems will address three to six of the NRCS Soil Health Demonstration Trial sub-priorities in their on-farm trials, including high-disturbance crop challenges and regional limitations such as soil water dynamics, nutrient adaptation, and diversification. Operations transitioning to or already addressing all soil health principles—minimizing disturbance, maximizing cover, maximizing biodiversity, and maximizing living roots—will be better positioned to tackle regional challenges to integrate biochar and biochar/compost applications. This approach aims to more deliberately sequester soil carbon, improve resilient soil functioning, and adapt to and mitigate climate change.  

Deliverables 

Soil Health Assessment Deliverables: 

• Perform initial and final soil health assessments at trial start and end which includes the NRCS In-Field Soil Health Assessment, Cornell Soil Health Testing Lab’s Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health, and fertility results and recommendations from regional Land Grant Universities. 

• Perform a Soil Carbon Stock analysis through high-density SOC mapping. 

• Conduct regionally specific soil analyses.  

Economic Deliverables: 

• Perform a biochar cost analysis to develop practice cost estimates for the biochar applications for each farm.  

• Perform a retrospective partial budget analysis for each farm in Year 5 based on actual costs and benefits of applying biochar in year 1, and annual yields through Year 4. 

• Develop case studies featuring partial budget analyses for selected farms in Year 5. 

Social Deliverables: 

• Conduct baseline and final social indicator surveys to first assess the motivations for using biochar, identify top desired outcomes, and barriers to biochar adoption (such as concerns about adopting new practices before implementation), and finally pinpoint the project strategies that were most effective in supporting farmers’ long-term adoption of soil health management system. 
• Conduct an early adopter survey of producers already using biochar to analyze lessons learned, key barriers and challenges for biochar adoption, and degree of integration with other soil health management systems practices to identify gaps and address technical information needs for farmer/adviser decision-making.

Current Progress 

Trials are already underway in New York, with biochar applications applied on one intensive vegetable farm. The other participating farms in New York are scheduled to begin in the fall of 2024. Other regional teams have also begun recruiting their farms with the goal of biochar implementation in either the spring or fall of 2025. As the farms prepare for trial implementation, our regional teams are collecting baseline social, soil health, and carbon stock data.