Biochar for landscape restoration in the tribal village of Udaisa, MP,India

Background and Problem being addressed:

• Udaisa village sits on the Vindhyan Plateau in Sidhi district, central Madhya Pradesh. It is a landscape of dry deciduous forest, laterite soils, and farming communities whose agricultural traditions stretch back generations. Gond and Baiga tribal farming families here have long practised mixed cropping, agroforestry, and seed saving. But decades of deforestation, soil degradation, and the pressure of monoculture agriculture have eroded both the land and the knowledge systems that sustained it. Soils that once supported a dozen varieties of crops like kodo millet, sanwa, ragi, arhar, and paddy now struggle to produce consistent yields without chemical inputs that farming families can barely afford. laterite and sandy loam soils in Sidhi are low in organic carbon, acidic, prone to moisture loss, and increasingly unable to support the diversity that farming families once grew without external inputs. Also, traditional collection practices, especially for NTFPs like Bamboo, often lead to soil compaction, biomass loss, increased vulnerability to forest fires, and poor regeneration. The farmers of Udaisa are mostly smallholder farmers owning less than 2 acres and dependent on subsistence farming. Thus, the tribal farming community, a majority of whom are young women farmers, and the associated ecosystem are in dire need of better resilience from climate shocks.

ILRT has worked in the Sidhi district for several years, which has introduced us to the landscape, community institutions, and the specific ecological challenges of Udaisa village. The village is abundant in bamboo, which is underutilised, with bamboo along watercourses and invasive Lantana camara spreading aggressively across forest commons and crop margins.

Naturophilia is a sustainability and clean-tech start-up developing agrowaste-to-wealth, low-carbon products using biochar and upskilling rural communities for better livelihoods and soil restoration. In April 2026, Dr. Debarati Chakraborty, founder of Naturophilia, conducted a training for the ILRT team and Udaisa community members on artisanal biochar making and soil health rejuvenation. The training clarified two things for them: a) the raw material is everywhere, and b) it is currently being wasted or causing harm. Lantana chokes forest commons; bamboo is underutilised. With proper training, both can be converted into high-quality biochar at the community scale using low-cost artisanal methods, which can then be further utilised for the local region’s soil restoration. The details of the members of the community group (Rupa Utpadak Samuha) of Odaisa, comprising 15 women farmers of 15 different families, are attached as separate files. ILRT is already working with them for local resource utilisation and livelihood generation. During the training on biochar production and activation, organised by ILRT, Dr. Chakraborty of Naturophilia has interacted with them in detail.

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Solution Statement

Our collaborative project aims to restore acidic, low organic carbon soil in tribal community-owned agricultural landscapes in Udaisa village, Sidhi district, Madhya Pradesh, India, through the community-led biochar production, activation and application for soil restoration. The application of locally made activated biochar using abundant, underutilised local resources like bamboo and invasive Lantana camara biomass in different local cropping systems will help to study in detail the effect of biochar applications on them and on the landscape restoration. This will create a scalable policy-to-practice framework for climate-resilient rural development. As the major emphasis of our project is training the farmers, the implementation will improve soil health, water retention, carbon sequestration, crop productivity, and livelihood resilience in the vulnerable tribal farming communities of Udaisa, Sidhi.

Objectives:

1.  To establish decentralised farmer-led biochar production and activation units using locally available agricultural and agroforestry residues.

2. To train farmers, women’s producer groups, and rural youth in sustainable biochar production, activation, quality control, and field application as a livelihood approach.

3. Establishment of farmer field schools where evaluation of the impacts of activated biochar on soil organic carbon, moisture retention, nutrient availability, crop yield, and drought resilience under local agro-climatic conditions and local cropping systems will be assessed.

4. Developing participatory monitoring and landscape assessment tools to translate field-level research into actionable recommendations for restoration planning and climate adaptation policies.

Major activities:

1.  Baseline landscape survey and GIS Mapping for village level landscape categorisation

2. Women farmer led biochar-production unit establishment

3. Farmer training and capacity building programmes, soil and biochar testing

4. Farmer field schools for field trials in a crop-specific, biochar dose-dependent manner, including both horticultural and agricultural crops

4. Data collection and analysis for landscape monitoring to assess the effect of activated biochar

5. Final reporting and project closure

Outputs:

1. GIS map showing village-level categories of different landscapes and soil conditions using open data.

2. Production units for training farmers in biochar production and biological activation

3. Qualitative data for biochar produced from different feedstocks (bamboo and Lantana) and soil site conditions before and after application of biochar.

4.  Scientific papers, popular articles, explanatory videos.

Dissemination/promotion plans: The gathered data, materials, and publications will be disseminated following the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) principles. All findings will be made open access through the various research venues for further use in scaling sustainable landscape restoration projects. We will also be communicating our findings and learnings through popular articles and developing explanatory videos in major local languages and vernacular languages (Hindi, Bagheli) to reach the masses. We also have plans to organise outreach events with local government and non-government organisations to share our learnings from the project implementation. 

Desired outcome: As the major emphasis of our project is on farmers’ training and education, our solution will also help the local smallholder farmers to be able to secure a healthier soil and thereby healthier crops. The practical knowledge offered through the project will further contribute towards sustainable livelihood opportunities for the local community, women’s empowerment, and enhancement of soil productivity and decreased dependency on external harsh chemical inputs. Utilisation of locally abundant natural resources like bamboo through sustainable, planned harvesting and invasive species like Lantana will further contribute towards better environmental sustainability of the project area on the landscape level. The gathered data and insights will help to create a replicable implementation model linking scientific evidence, community participation, and institutional partnerships for scaling sustainable landscape restoration across similar agro-climatic regions of India.