By Zablon Oyugi
BIOSORRA, a leading carbon removal startup has launched the biggest biochar-producing plant in East Africa to provide its high quality biochar to Kenya Nut Company, a multinational agribusiness firm growing a variety of products.
According to Mr. Vincent Koloki, the Chief Financial Officer at Kenya Nut Company, the move symbolizes the companies’ long-term relationship with a unique proposition of providing carbon removal innovation to promote sustainable agriculture for farmers.
“I am optimistic that this partnership is a win-win for BIOSORRA and Kenya Nut in both the agriculture and the sustainability space,” said Koloki in his address during the launch of the plant at Thika in Kiambu County, Kenya on Friday last week- November 3rd, 2023.
In this, the companies have become the first scalable biochar alliance in the East Africa region with a shared mission on sustainability, agriculture, and people. BIOSORRA is committed to provide biochar to Kenya Nut’s farmers. “I’m grateful for the support I have received from the Kenya Nut Company management about this partnership and I’m very optimistic that the projects will grow massively to not only help us but also the smallholder farmers. I believe BIOSORRA Biochar Bora will make a major breakthrough in the country and also globally,” said Jane Ndirangu, the group Sustainability Manager at Kenya Nut Company.
Quality biochar
BIOSORRA developed its own patented pyrolysis technology, bringing the first-of-its-kind quality biochar production following an intense scientific and innovation work, after realizing the lack of sustainable farming solutions at scale in Kenya and in Global South countries, worsened with the huge dependence on synthetic solutions that are currently imported.
It seemed impossible to have a hardware high Climate tech and scalable production both able to qualify for high carbon removal standards and feasible for the operating geography but thanks to BIOSORRA’s technology, it is now possible to transform waste into yield by producing Biochar Bora.
Biochar Bora
Biochar Bora is a rich carbon soil amendment product currently in the Kenyan market that helps yields improve by 40 percent, reducing water needs by 30 percent thanks to its porosity structure while reducing input costs for farmers massively.
It’s the perfect input solution to restore acidic soils heavily affected by climate effects into fertile, rich, organic production to reinforce food security and farming resiliency.
Its other benefits include:
- Traps moisture by acting as a sponge to take in more water to be released in drier seasons
- Improves soil quality by raising Soil PH for acidic soils
- Acts as a fertilizer booster to increase nutrients release from the fertilizer and nutrients uptake by the plants
- It helps to sequester carbon which helps improve climate
- Boosts soil Fertility
- Prevents Soil Erosion
- Improves cation (position ion) exchange capacity
- It helps the soil hold nutrients by preventing the leaching of nutrients
“The novelty of the BIOSORRA approach is that this new product is actually carbon negative, therefore capturing CO2 out of the atmosphere beyond restoring the soil, and it is produced at high premium and scalability. Climate doesn’t wait and we shouldn’t either”, said Ines Serra, CEO of BIOSORRA.
