Dear Jock
The price he offered you for char is very attractive. I think if rail is cheap enough it is possible to send it from the forestry processing areas in Canada! >…The lower the cost of the feedstock, the lower the value of the charcoal has >to be in order to make economic sense. Completely agree. Gotta keep an eye on the overall picture. >…As the farmers experience for themselves the value of the charcoal enriched >soil amendment, ie better yields, they start to ask for more soil amendment >and less charcoal for cooking. Interesting what direct personal experience >can accomplish. That is what I want to see more of. If there are more experiments that demonstrate in side by side example that a comparable substitute for char (vermiculite?) does not have the same effect, then the confirmation is made. >I am sure conditions in Central Java are rather different, but this is a most >interesting conversation. People here are, as Cecil commented, drowning in biomass. Save in certain areas or islands there is no loss of forests from cooking or charcoal making for cooking. For biofuel energy plantations, massive loss – just look what is happening in Malaysia – but for cooking, no. The rush to make subsidised biofuels is twisting all the economics of rural energy and is by far the primary destroyer of tropical forests with logging close behind. I think that applies to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and probably other countries in the region if they are wet enough. The size of the palm oil plantations in Malaysia is beyond mind boggling. It is a hard sell talking to people about a fuel saving stove when they are burning the surplus biomass to get rid of it. In town it is easier as people buy fuel and wish to save it, though it is not an all-consuming issue (pun intended). Asking what bothers people about their stoves produces a list of complaints. Asking stove programme people about what bothers them about other people’s stoves produces a very different list. It is not that one list is right and the other is wrong, but they are different and it matters. Regards Crispin
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