BioTech In Action: Building an EcoFriendly, Sustainable Environment

Building an Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Environment

Bio-Tech in Action

What is Bio-Tech?

The manufacture and use of microbial

products or extracts for specific Industrial

or Commercial purposes

Common Bio-Tech functions…

Bio-Remediation Products• Starter Cultures

• Digesters

• Inoculants

• Seeding Agent

Sugar Mill waste water before & after inoculum spray

Composting

• Starter Culture 1litre:10m3

• Seeding Agent 1litre:10m3

Local Production of Bio-Tech Products

Current uses for Bio-Tech ProductsIn this Region

Composting – Acceleration of Break-Down and Preservation of Nutrients

Waste Management – Advanced Sedimentation and odour control

Agricultural Supplements– Targeted nutrient uptake, Bio-Fertilisers

Nutrients include: Nitrogen & Carbon, from atmosphere and Phosphorous and Calcium unlocked from soil.

How Microbial products enhance soil health

• Feed and sustain microbes in the food web• Help to rapidly decompose organic matter (to produce

humus) and enhance soil structure• Promote Nitrogen fixation that encourages plant root

growth (ie. pathways for soil oxygen and water)• Help keep nutrients available in the root zone and out of

surface and groundwater – includes Calcium and Phosphorous

• Compete with disease causing organisms• Filter and degrade pollutants as water flows through the

soil• Catch and process Carbon and other element from the air

to build soil humus

Nitrogen Cycle

Carbon Cycle

InoculatingProducts contain Bugs which Catch and Store CO2 in the soil

Some Products contain Bugs which enhance Carbon processing.

Bio-fertilisers and Soil

conditioners

Increased Nutrient Uptake+ Greater Soil Microbe Activity

+ Less loss to Run-off

= MORE $ TO THE FARMER

and it’s ECO-FRIENDLY

Products which address specific, measurable nutrient

uptakePhosphorous -- Background biological activity which helps stimulate growth requires P

availability

Calcium – A specific microbial formulation which showed rapid calcium uptake (developed for bananas)

Nitrogen – Nitrogen fixation is more than just legume based. Phototophic bacteria accomplish this.

Together, stimulating microbial activity which do these three things .........

P + Ca + N = Soil Carbon

Please note that this is a PHOTOSYNTHETIC REACTION BASED IN THE SOIL.

This photosynthesis does not stop at night

and is SYMBIOTIC with plant growth.

Continued, diverse microbial activity generates, results in and manages sustained soil carbon.

Microbial Activity underpins and supports many other systems:

Plant Growth – Plants don’t eat fertiliser. Plants eat “baby-food” -- processed by-products of microbial activity. Plants symbiotically Stimulate microbial activity

Impacts from Cell Grazing Systems – animals help to disburse beneficial activity

and form part of a dynamic system.

Soil Structure and Nutrient transfer mechanisms are microbially based.

Nutrient supply ‘ON DEMAND’

Up to 80% of N which ends up in plants grown in intensive agriculture comes from the AIR .... Biological Nitrogen Fixation is critical

Carbon and Hydrogen are also critical to the growth of plants and animals ...

These are provided to eco-systems on-demand by microbial elements in the soil. An inter-related signalling system which when healthy will provide these elements when plants need them.

Local/Regional Product Production

All processes include some form of recycled organic material

(Compost, greenwaste, sludges, etc)

This material is not the thing – it acts as the media carrying the thing... The bugs make the difference

A big advantage to breed bugs locally

Distribution

Rural Distributorship – agreement signed to Facilitate localised distribution of information about carbon farming with one of Australia’s leading Rural (fertiliser distributors)

Local microbial products facilitators:

Microsoil

Fertile Farms

From this concept: Real improvements to farm management practices leading to real benefits

for Farmers and their soils and real changes in the material volumes effecting their

environments

Can it be done??

Increased Plant Vigour

Warmer Colours show greater intensity of Biological Activity

Verification – large scale

We monitor:

Phosphorous Availability

Total Moisture

Total Organic Carbon

Total Carbon

Soil Structure

All of these are indicators and monitors of enhanced microbial activity.

Monitoring is in 3 phases:

Point Sampling

Overflight – spectroscopy and ground truthing

Collation of a Pool of Data across regions and nationally

Measurement over time develops TREND LINES and gives a more complete picture.

5 measurements: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months 12 months, 2 years.

This gives a dynamic picture of a pool of soil carbon supported by CHANGED LAND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES.

Filters help Isolate Carbon in Soil under the crop

GPS located Ground Truthing confirms photo record

The “CO-BENEFITS” of Soil Enhancement today outweigh the potential financial future benefits of Carbon Credit sales......real change is afoot:

1. Sales of Carbon Credits are real – ($64 Billion in 2007) but remain somewhat “Ghostly” to some

2. Water Retention, Reduced Reliance on Synthetic Fertiliser Inputs, Buffered Disease control. These issues are REAL & IMMEDIATE...

0.5% Increase in Soil Carbon = 8 inches of Rain

The use of the Prime Carbon program on parkland has meant that our irrigation costs and the need for irrigation have been cut in half.  For us this benefit alone justifies participation in the program.

Tristram Denyer – Operations Co-ordinator Parks, Townsville City Council

What if we get the job done before we are allowed?

Soil issues must be addressed. Capture and storage of Carbon is possible.

Improved agricultural outcomes are happening– not just possible.

It is possible now to create, manage, monitor and present for sale a POOL of soil carbon across the country.

We hope that Governments get on the bus before it leaves!

But the bus is running anyway.

State of play today:

Approx 400,000 Hectares Under Negotiation or signed up to the process.

When completed, this means: 22,000,000 Tonnes of CO2e

Soil Carbon measurements for 2007 and 2008 in early adoption farms already above 1% on all NQ lands bar 1. (That farm has 0.8% increase with a year to go)

Soil Carbon movements in Riverina and other poorer rainfall areas above 2% in less than 2 years. (Independant measurement by CSU, DPI and EPA in Riverina region)

Credits listed in Australia and Pending in Chicago and Europe

First Credit sales to retailers in NQ have taken place

Our VisionBy 2013 we will:Convert at least 1 million hectares to sustainable farming practices Provide $1 billion pa in commercial opportunities for country regions Provide substantial wholesale carbon credit units for trading at a National and International level Be seen as the benchmark for regionally focused carbon exchange programs in Australia Be a focal point for on-going research into sustainable technologies

Carbon Trading

EnvironmentalServices

RenewableEnergies

Sustainable Farming

SustainableRegional

Development

Bio agentsPrimae Facie case

CarbonSampling

Agreed Farming Regime

Laboratory Testing

Credit Aggregation

Credit Trading

BiomassRecycling

BiofuelsRenewableEnergies

Resource Efficiency

Measurement & validation

Aggregation

Kyoto Auditing

KnowledgeNetwork Clusters

Soil Improvement

Generate Community Support – and Community Benefit

Everybody is TALKING ABOUT IT

......the world wants food, carbon neutrality, protection from climate change, money security, etc etc etc ....

We have a Solution:

Pay Our Own Landholders and Improve our own Soil

Building an Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Environment