First project results published in peer-reviewed journal
07.05.2025
Research is one important part of the ETH-Soil project to gather evidence for effective organic fertilisers based on biochar. In the start of 2023, the first call for research proposals was published, followed by numerous submissions and finally six selected grantees who conducted both field and pot trials with different fertiliser formulations. The grantees presented their interim research results during the second Soil Symposium in February 2024 and discussed their final results in a panel during the third Soil Symposium just two months ago. Prior to that, ETH-Soil team member Dr. Betelhem Mekonnen presented a poster on the main findings of this research during the EUBCE in Marseille in June 2024. Based on this poster, Dr. Betelhem and the involved researchers in Ethiopia and at DBFZ published a paper "Biochar-based fertilizers increase crop yields in acidic tropical soils" in Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining (Wiley), which is the first peer-reviewed publication within the project.
In the paper, the authors review the field trials in midland and highland locations dominated by acidic Nitisols near Jimma and in Sidama. The coffee husk biochar had been charged with nutrients by digestate and vermicompost and applied at different rates. The biochar-based fertiliser performed similar or better than inorganic fertiliser alone. The strongest effect was observed in highly acidic soils with the highest application rate of 20 t ha−1 BBF showing its ability to act as a soil amendment for acidic soil.
You can read the complete paper here: https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.2777
