Dear colleagues, my research program is facing a key challenge of generating new knowledge to address issues of desertification and arable land depletion facing smallholder farms in the Sahel and across the West African Niger-Benue corridor. I have suggested that we explore emerging climate intervention technologies to correct not only the warming effect but also soil degradation. I thought that- (*kindly correct me where I am wrong*) - The Biomass Energy with - /Carbon Capture and Storage (BE-CCS) and Biochar technologies can assist with that regard since they are innovative agronomic technologies for carbon sequestration and storage. For instance, a carbon-negative technology, BECCS can take advantage of the innate ability of trees, grasses and other plants to absorb atmospheric CO2 for photosynthesis. Using appropriate ecosystem based approaches this CO2 can be used to restore or at least rehabilitate degraded soils and enable future utilization of the land for agriculture and forestry, depending on the soil structure and moisture in the area.
I therefore request for your opinion on the questions below: *Questions: * (1) In what possible ways can BE- CCS and Biochars be used for restoration / rehabilitation of degraded soils within semi-arid and arid lands? (2) What possible scenarios on carbon storage, nutrients and soil moisture can be developed to test the potentials of large-scale deployment of BE-CCS/ Biochars for the rehabilitation of degraded soils within hyper-arid lands of the Sahara and the Atacama deserts, for instance? (3) What progressive steps for upscaling/ outscaling their deployment can be anticipated? (4) Within what time scale can the land to be fit for producing carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals? Such an inquiry will help unveil the physical constraints and limitations of the BE-CCS/ Biochar technologies in forestry and agronomy. It will also enable a tradeoff analysis between climate intervention outcomes and afforestation and other productive biomass systems. I will be very grateful if you can provide an opinion based on substantial literature to support their arguments. Regards, *Dr. Cush Ngonzo Luwesi*, PhD > > *Focal Region Manager *– *West Africa* > > *CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystem (WLE)* > > > *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* > > *International Water Management Institute - West Africa Office* > > CSIR Campus, Martin Odei Block, Airport Residential Area, PMB CT 112, > Cantonments > > Accra – Ghana > > Tel: +233 302 784753/4; +233 28 9109561 > Fax: +233 302 784752 > Mobile: +233 (0) 0263772520 > > *Email: **[email protected]* <[email protected]> > > IWMI website: : http://www.iwmi.org > > WLE website: http://wle.cgiar.org > Agriculture and Ecosystems blog: http://wle.cgiar.org/blogs > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
