ABSTRACT
Crop production to meet global food security faces severe challenges of multiple origins, including decreasing soil fertility and organic matter, climate change, irregular rainfall patterns, and pathogens. Abiotic stresses such as heat and cold, drought, salinity, water-logging and heavy metal stress are emerging as significant factors reducing crop yields on a global scale. Biochar is a highly porous carbonaceous amendment produced in absence or limited supply of oxygen from a wide variety of biomass feedstocks. Biochar generally has a high surface area, cation exchange capacity, reactive functional groups and highly recalcitrant carbon but little nutritional value. Because of these characteristics, biochar has been extensively linked with a reduction in multiple abiotic stresses to improve crop growth, development, yields, soil fertility and soil quality. However, the majority of these findings are based on laboratory and greenhouse studies and there is a need to investigate these benefits of biochar under field conditions.
