Awareness and interest in Biochar Soil Amendments in Northern Namibia

¹ Biodiversity Unit, Faculty of Science, University of Turku, Vesilinnantie 5, Turku, Finland
² Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Rehtorinpellonkatu 3, Turku, Finland
³ Department of Environmental Science, University of Namibia, Ogongo Campus, Namibia
⁴ Department of Crop Production and Agricultural Technologies, University of Namibia, Ogongo Campus, Namibia

^* Corresponding author: ayu.pratiwi@utu.fi

Abstract

Bush encroachment is a major driver of soil degradation in Northern Namibia, threatening rangeland health and agricultural productivity. This study investigated local awareness and interest in biochar production as a soil amendment derived from encroached bush biomass. We delivered identical workshops in three constituencies in the Ohangwena Region, targeting smallholder farmers and combining technical lectures on biochar with both technical and practical sessions on composting and tree planting, and then measured the determinants of attendance, knowledge gains, and practice preferences. Our results found that households living farther from the training venue and local administrative office were more likely to attend and rate the training as more valuable, suggesting that formal workshops fill an information gap in remote areas. In contrast, tenure-secure households showed less urgency to adopt organic soil amendments and practices that demand extra labor, time, and on-farm biomass, which may strain their available resources. These findings underscore the need for decentralized training programs closer to remote and smaller village clusters, targeted engagement with land-secure farmers, and community-based forestry arrangements to support collective soil fertility management and tree- planting efforts.