Farmers are well paid for the production of biochar with money derived from carbon credit sales. This is a second source of income besides regular farming. The produced biochar is applied on the fields of the farmer. Therefore, farmers also become less dependent on the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, of which the price is increasing steeply.
Besides biochar production, a variety of trees are planted throughout the project area. In the project area there is a huge monoculture of rice. The planting of various trees at the borders of each farm creates a more biodiverse ecosystem instead of the present rice monoculture. Biochar also is applied in farming soils, where it helps fight desertification, makes arid areas fertile again and increases micro-biological life in the soil.
By employing women as artisanal farmers as well as (head) supervisors, a position of equality is created. Women will be directing and working besides men in an equal way. Women will also be paid an equal amount of money for an equal amount of work. In giving women key roles in the system, we empower them.
With biochar production, carbon stored in biomass is brought from the short term and active carbon cycle towards the long term and inactive carbon cycle. Depending on the quality of biochar, carbon is stabilized in the soil for at least a hundred and up to a thousand years. Besides the direct carbon sink, biochar also has a measurable positive influence on microbial life in the soil and thus the organic carbon content.
Artisanal biochar production by farmers in India includes a financial movement from large wealthy corporations to the hard working, generally poor farmers. With the financial influx from wealthy to poor, Dutch Carboneers aim is to reduce the financial inequalities between the Global North and the Global South.
Because of the porous internal structure of biochar, nutrients are attracted and stored in biochar, this prevents leaching out of nutrients into surrounding surface water and thus eutrophication. Eutrophication of waterways lead to uncontrollable algal blooms and the suffocation of life below water.
The biochar will increase yields for their own production, leading to actual growth of their income. Dutch Carboneers is supporting an extra source of income for the whole region. This evokes not only extra jobs directly but also economic growth in the whole region for work that is better paid than rice production.
Biomass is not always valued in the Odisha region. Therefore, to get rid of it, farmers light the residues on fire on their fields. This leads to misty smoke clouds which are detrimental for the health of the farmers. Also, biochar captures and holds heavy metals and other toxic elements, which thus do not end up in the edible parts of the plant, but are kept isolated in the ground.
