Designchar4food (d4f) Network: Enhancing Soil Carbon and Fertility While Reducing Greenhouse Gas Production through Biochar Application.

Biochar has gained global attention as an amendment for improving soil properties and increasing crop yields while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, it has been overhyped as a panacea for all soils. Recent biochar literature reviews and meta-analyses of results have revealed variable effectiveness that strongly depends on soil and biochars properties. In addition, biochars are expensive to manufacture, emphasizing a risk if they are not judiciously employed. We propose that a new archetype is needed such as ‘designer biochars’, which advocates applying a specific biochar for remediation of a target soil deficiency. Unfortunately, there are no universal guidelines to manufacture designer biochars. Here, we have assembled a team of scientists to work on a project called designchar4food (d4f). The d4f team is synthesizing existing literature results and we expect to develop suitable designer biochar management strategies for their integrati