Conversion of Biomass Waste into Biochar and the Effect on Mung Bean Crop Production

The dependence on chemical fertilizers in agriculture leads to environmental hazards, destruction of biological communities, and poorer soil quality. Addition of biochar in soil alters overall soil properties, encourages microbiota and increases nutrients’ holding and absorption capacity; hence can be used to improve soil fertility for sustainable agriculture. Cow dung (CD), pine wood (PW), and pine needles (PN) found abundantly in the Himalayan region were selected for preparing biochar. Since phosphate solubilizing fungi have also been cited in the literature to enhance plant growth, the Penicillium sp. K4 strain was added along with biochar. A pot experiment with mung bean plants with eight different treatments was conducted. Generally, all the treatments showed a significant increase in growth and yield compared to plants grown in untreated soil. However, the biochar prepared from pine needles was found to be the best. It was observed that addition of biochar to soil influenced the overall growth of plants positively but the inoculation of Penicillium sp. K4 with biochar improved this effect further. Hence, it can be concluded that the addition of bio-inoculant in biochar can be a useful practice for enhancing crop productivity.