Time: 8.30 – 12.00, 16 September 2022 (Friday)
Venue: Room Venus 4 – Adonis Hotel, 55 Quang Trung, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Biochar, often derived from agricultural waste biomass, is recognized as a carbon-negative technology. It is a cost-efficient long-term carbon sequestration option with enormous potential benefits for regenerative farming practices. It is seen as a clean, effective, and sustainable solution for decarbonizing the agriculture sector, supporting climate change mitigation and sustainable development, the world over.
In Vietnam, several players from the research community, private sector, and international and local NGOs have been pioneering and developing biochar projects over the last 20 years. To date, most activities have been undertaken at a pilot scale with international support in the agriculture sector. The most attractive commercial opportunity for biochar in Vietnam lies in the agricultural sector, as biochar-based soil amendments, improve soil quality and increase yields. Activities in water filtration applications and activated carbon are emerging and there is currently very limited work on carbon sequestration. There is still a large gap between biochar research and practical manufacturing, marketing, and usage of biochar across the country.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), with financial support from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), introduced and has been promoting the biochar-pyrolysis technology as a climate-smart solution for Vietnam’s agriculture sector since 2017. With a focused target on bringing together all the relevant ongoing biochar initiatives and projects and various engaged stakeholders in Vietnam, under one roof to help explore and build collaborative efforts, the UNIDO, SECO, and project consortium, cordially organized this event. The workshop specifically aims to bring all relevant biochar stakeholders together to network and discuss the key gaps and needs of the sector. The broader objective is that this event is the first step and will lead to the development of a national platform on biochar that allows all stakeholders to share and exchange ideas; interact, collaborate, support to promote research; and manufacture, sell, and utilize biochar and pyrolysis technology in Vietnam.
There was a total of 45 people participating in the networking event with 28 delegates from different organizations under MARD, universities, institutes, and enterprises and 17 persons who are project team members, supporting staff, interpreters, and people working in the related aspects. The workshop consists of two main components. To share knowledge and experiences on biochar projects and initiatives, during the first component of the event, there were five short presentations were delivered to delegates by both national and international experts as below:
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- Small-scaled pyrolysis project
- Application of biochar produced from agricultural by-products in farming
- Model of production and use of biochar in crop cultivation in Thua Thien Hue province
- Effect of biochar on soil quality, carbon storage, and crop yield: Solutions for carbon farming
- Approaches to promote the biochar market in Vietnam
The 2nd component of the workshop focused on discussions and initiatives to develop a national platform on biochar.
The event was reported in the media on different channels, i.e. Capital Education News – Education and Times Newspapers (under management of Ministry of Education and Training), Communist Party of Vietnam online newspaper, VTC1 Money (Live channel), VNCPC’s website, and Construction newspaper (Electronic newspaper of the Ministry of Construction).
