On Mar 26, 7:31 am, Christopher Calder <[email protected]> wrote:
> The problem with turning "crop waste" into non-biodegradable charcoal
> and burying it, is that there is very little true crop waste.
> Removing unused portions of plants that are normally plowed under
> increases the need for nitrogen fertilizers, which release the most
> potent greenhouse gas of all: nitrous oxide. Much of the residual
> crop biomass must be returned to the soil to maintain topsoil
> integrity, otherwise the rate of topsoil erosion will increase
> dramatically. If we mine our topsoil for energy we will end up
> committing slow agricultural suicide like the Mayan Empire.
My own knowledge is limited to straw in the UK: its C:N ratio is so
high that it actually soaks up nitrogen from the soil on burial. There
have been long periods where crop waste is fully removed (admittedly
there is a limit to how low the straw can be cut!) and the UK's yields
are among the highest in the world.
James
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