Biochar+Kilns+for+Grassroot+Development

= Deforestation in Haiti =

  Figure 1. This line denotes the border that separates Haiti (left) from the Dominican Republic (right).  Note the extreme difference in presence of forested land between the countries.

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**PROBLEM STATEMENT **
====As arable land and resources have become more scarce people look to options such as slash and burn, especially in places like Haiti, as a way of clearing land to grow more crops. Second only to the demand for wood as fuel, trees are cleared in search of better quality soil. Clearing of land through slash and burn practices is highly pollutive and destructive but, more importantly to Haitian farmers, it harms the long-term fertility of the soil by making the soil less protected against environmental conditions. The slashed and burnt soil is more prone to the Haitian extremes in moisture which is directly tied to erosion and nutrient leaching. With each harvest the soil is stripped of nutrients, compacted, salted, and less economic. Additional open burning of biomass continues to bring the soil out of balance via the displacement of key minerals. In the presence of highly consumptive and destructive cows, the land is further degraded and yields continue to decrease. Many farmers become further impoverished and are forced off their land. Our goal is to bring awareness and invest our time and energy into alternative land management practices that can positively impact places like Haiti. We would like to study the use of biochar technologies to enrich soils in an effort that is consistent with decreasing dependence on deforestation while increasing self-reliance for farmers. ====

**PROJECT GOALS **

 * 1) ====Determine the viability and efficacy of biochar being implemented as a sustainable solution for improving soil quality thereby reducing the need for the clearing of forested areas. ====
 * 2) ====Develop a small, sustainable biochar system in solidarity with the needs of Haitian agricultural communities, and in conjunction with the Student Experimental Farm and the SLO City Farm ====

**Who are the people that we want to make an impact on? **
====We want to make an impact on the people of Haitian agricultural communities who are interested in creating and practicing a more sustainable form agriculture. Ideally, we would like to address a community with an educational center so that the knowledge and technology may be more ideally distributed. ====

According to the C.I.A. 'Fact Book' :

 * ====30.8% of Haitian labor force is involved in agriculture, and primarily small family farms which primarily grow coffee, mangoes, cocoa, sugarcane. rice, sorghum, wood, and vetiver (bunchgrass used for oil production). ====
 * ====20% of the labor force is involved in industries which include textiles, sugar refining, flour milling, cement, light assembly using imported parts. ====
 * ====53% make up the service industry of Haiti with a primarily informal sector including vendors, shoe shiners, artists, fisherman, etc. ====
 * ====In 2010 the unemployment rate was 40.6% of the population of the 4.81 million people that made up the labor force. That means that 1.95 million people are mostly unskilled and cannot find a means of supporting themselves. ====

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">DEMOGRAPHICS **
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The population of Haiti has tripled since 1950 from right around 3 million to 10 million inhabitants (while most age and gender proportions have remained the same. The GDP per capita is fairly low to just $1,315 with a 7 percent inflation rate. What is even more shocking, is that remittances ==== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Please explain what this is and provide a reference. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">account for nearly 20 percent of the Haitian GDP; currently 70 percent of the population lives under the poverty line. While importing nearly 3 times what it exports, the Dominican Republic is the major trading partner while the United States provides nearly a quarter of the countries trading needs.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What do they produce and how much? **
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">According to FAOStat, the statistics division of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, only two of the top ten of Haiti's agricultural production (in terms of monetary value) was meat products. Coffee, once Haiti's number one cash crop and export, ranks at number 12 for agricultural production (in terms of monetary value). The interesting thing of note, at least according to estimates, put mangoes as the second grossing crop produced by Haitians. A graph below provides a more detailed outline: ==== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What do we think the average cost to consumer would be potentially? What does this look like compared to the poorest people in the country? **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Details about costs for producing biochar are fairly slim due to the issue that economies of scales has yet to hit this "product." Currently, the price per ton of biochar in the United States is just over 2,000 US dollars or just under 1.30 US dollar per pound. Depending on how one looks at it, there could be a host of reasons why the cost is so high in the United States that the people of Haiti would not be prone too. Conversely, with the cost being so high, biochar could also become a new "cash crop" for the people of Haiti. It is important to note that these economic figures correspond to a biochar producing system that is of industrial scale and that smaller scale systems will yield very different prices and are more labor based. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What if individuals produced biochar and brought it together to a general merchant for export. How would that work? Of course, it would be much better (in my opinion) if the biochar was deposited in the soil there in Haiti instead.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ROAD-MAP **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The ultimate goal of this project would be to actually create and implement a biochar initiative within Haiti. However, due to the scope of the quarter system, this is a little far-fetched. That being said, we are currently conducting the project with very few self-imposed limitations. We are currently in the process of creating a set of interview questions and reaching out to potential members of both the San Luis Obispo community and the Haitian community to know more about the successes and problems with biochar (the questions will be uploaded soon). The next step of the project would be to actually implement a small scale biochar production "plant" either on the SEF or the [|San Luis Obispo City Farm]to see if it is even possible for small scale farmers to be able to do it.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">STAKE-HOLDER ANALYSIS **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(1,2,3,4,5) || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Degree of Influence of Stakeholder <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(1,2,3,4,5) || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- Learn about, educate on, and physically engage alternative land management practices that appropriately integrate biochar || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- For us to intelligently connect with and understand those that the project can help <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- He wants to direct the flow of information that we present so that we may succeed || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- Currently could be potentially negative, based on common perceptions of charcoal (not biochar) || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- To increase resilience, sustainability, and educational value of the city land <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- “the purpose is to maintain the land”... …”through sustainable agricultural production and to provide its citizens with educational opportunities to learn about food production and local food systems.” || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- “IBI promotes good industry practices, stakeholder collaboration, and environmental and ethical standards to foster economically viable biochar systems that are safe and effective for use in soil fertility and as a climate mitigation tool” || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4 ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stakeholder Groups || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Interests in Relation to Project || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Effects of Project on Interests (-,0,+) || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stakeholder Importance for Project Success
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Us || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- Bringing awareness about biochar
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pete || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- For us to educationally engage the technology appropriate process
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rural Hatian Garden-and- School-Centric Community || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- Not well established.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student Experimental Farm || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- The mission of the farm is to promote holistic paradigms for agricultural sustainability. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1 ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The San Luis Obispo City Farm || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- To conduct experiments and educate
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">IBI || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- Provides the information needed to universally and consistently define what biochar is and how it is best produced in different pyrolysis conditions, soil conditions, and “scale of application” or ”proportion” conditions.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">NGOs || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Cooperation between parties with a mutual interest in the implementation of biochar in developing countries || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+ || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3 ||

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">RESOURCES: **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|International Biochar Initiative] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Agroforestry and Sustainable Resource Conservation in Haiti: A Case Study] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Carbon Roots International <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Agriculture: State of the Art Soil] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Biochar Systems for Smallholders in Developing Countries] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Demonstration on making charcoal briquettes, by Amy Smith of D-Lab, MIT] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Biochar: Potential for countering land degradation and for improving agriculture] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Rethinking Biochar] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|The simplest of the simple: a two-barrel charcoal retort] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Why Farm with Biochar?]

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">CONTACT: E-mail Phone **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teo Humkey mhumkey33@gmail.com (859) 351-8799 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Haley Schlageter haleyschlageter94@gmail.com (209) 747-2422 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Seth Neumann saneuman@calpoly.edu (510) 816-8944 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cameron Montalvo crmontal@calpoly.edu (650) 454-0596

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= = = At present, this would receive a "B". I'd like to see a plan of what you propose for the SEF and for research. = = = = I'd also like to know more about peoples' lives and how biochar might help them. = = -I got it this with my interview with the haiti community & city farm - cameron = = = = I think it would be a good idea for you to collaborate with the coffee group and/or sanitation. = = - lets definitely check in with the sanitation team in the near future. i dont see the coffee team being very worthwhile - cam = = = = I think you could have some more links to biochar Bob and the organization he visited. = = - Teo I think you said you got this on the way... putting the video directly on the site might be kind of interesting - cam = = = = I'd like to learn more about this organization I spoke with Teo about. = = -carbon roots international? = = = = Let me know if you'd like me to review the website again before the final presentation. = = - lets do this eventually... =