February 13, 2024, Lecturer Ewunetu Tazebew at Injibara University, an Ethiopian side member of SATREPS-EARTH Project, achieved the Best Presentation Award at the 2nd Soil Symposium at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

This symposium was organized by the ETH-Soil project as a platform for researchers and practitioners to share their experiences with biochar-based biofertilizers to help Ethiopian soil become fertile again. The project was launched by a German institution called DBFZ, which focuses on rehabilitating degraded soils and ensuring food security for small-scale farmers.

Lecturer Tazebew gave a presentation about biochar-based indigenous organic fertilizer (BIF) conducted under the framework of SATREPS-EARTH project with the title of “Optimizing Soil Health and Agricultural Productivity with Biochar-based Indigenous Organic Fertilizers in Acidic Soils: Insights from Northwestern Ethiopia.” This study evaluated the effects of biochar and biochar combined with indigenous organic amendments on acidic soil and the growth of tef which is a staple grain in Ethiopia in the sub-tropical highlands of Ethiopia.
In the presentation, he concluded that the adoption of BIF led to substantial improvements in soil properties and crop yield, highlighting the importance of scaling up this intervention to benefit a larger community of farmers facing similar soil fertility challenges.