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CIFOR–ICRAF publishes over 750 publications every year on agroforestry, forests and climate change, landscape restoration, rights, forest policy and much more – in multiple languages.

CIFOR–ICRAF addresses local challenges and opportunities while providing solutions to global problems for forests, landscapes, people and the planet.

We deliver actionable evidence and solutions to transform how land is used and how food is produced: conserving and restoring ecosystems, responding to the global climate, malnutrition, biodiversity and desertification crises. In short, improving people’s lives.

Biochar for climate-change mitigation and restoration of degraded lands

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Rain-fed agriculture provides employment for millions of smallholder farmers on the African continent, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 95 percent of cultivated land is unirrigated. But climatic shocks – including prolonged dry seasons and irregular rainfall – are depleting the fertility and productivity of soils, and jeopardizing the health and resilience of communities that depend on them for food, nutrition and livelihoods security. This white paper examines how biochar – a biomass product obtained through heating organic matter in zero- or low-oxygen environments – can support rural, isolated and low-to-middle income communities to overcome these obstacles, while simultaneously promoting enhanced restoration and management of degraded drylands that part of GLF Africa: Restoring Africa’s Drylands.

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