Biochar as Soil Amendment for Mitigating Nutrients Stress in Crops

Global food security is threatened by decreasing soil fertility and climate change. Moreover, soil erosion and salinity are depleting mineral nutrients through leaching, precipitation, and complexation and gas emissions. This issue can be solved by the addition of biochar, which improves soil fertility, crop productivity and carbon sequestration in soils. Biochar has a high sorption capacity which minimizes nutrient leaching in groundwater and surface water, and thus promotes the timely release of nutrients to crop plants. Biochar also increases the nutrient stocks in the root zone, which improves nutrients uptake. Biochar reduces greenhouse gas emissions by improving soil quality. This chapter details the role of biochar in mitigating nutrients stress, sequestering carbon and improving crop yield.