Time: 9.00 am – 4:00pm on 19 March, 2022 (Saturday)
Venue: Village Cultural House, Village 3, Cu M’Gar district, Dak Lak province.
This workshop was organized under the framework of the Project “Strengthening the business case of small-scale pyrolysis in Viet Nam”, co-implemented by UNIDO.
This event was performed to raise awareness to local farmers and potential adapters of pyrolysis technology on the benefits of transforming biomass residues (such as coffee husk and rice husk) into biochar and how to apply biochar and carbon based fertilizers for soil improvement. The event built capacity from the Binh Minh cooperative members, local farmers as well as individuals working in related fields of sustainable agriculture such as worm composting and organic coffee production from other parts of Vietnam.
The training agenda covered these following key aspects:
-
- Biochar production and drying demonstration: Binh Minh Cooperative members introduced their pyrolysis system and how they operating the PPV300 machine and making biochar
- Case study Cambodia: Sharing of experiences on Biochar production and bio-fertilizer distribution
- Why biochar: Delivered the information on (i) Carbon farming (eg. carbon cycle, why C is important in soil), (ii) Soil application (eg. beneficial effect of biochar on soils), (iii) Farm management (eg. return on investment for farmers), and (iv) Carbon finance (Why is biochar good for the environment? Introduction to carbon credits and incentives for carbon farming)
- Peer to Peer learning session via conducting the field visit to the nearby coffee & pepper farm: The coffee farmer explained her experience in applying biochar and improving pepper yields with natural practices
- Makers lab as bio-fertilizer with local resources via making soil mix for vegetable seedling application using compost and manure
Training materials are translated into Vietnamese and printed out and delivered to the participants. These materials help to provide knowledge and information about biochar made from pyrolysis technology transferred from Switzerland and how to apply this type of product for soil improvement, through several different applications including seedling production, transplanting and long term fertility management for mature crops. The training materials consist of:
By this event, a communication video on application of biochar for soil improvement was prepared and then public shared on UNIDO’s and VNCPC‘s YouTube channels.
