Effectiveness of biochar on degraded irrigated soils in southeast Kazakhstan

The article presents the results of field studies on the effect of various doses of birch biochar on the agrophysical and agrochemical properties of degraded irrigated rice-march soil of the Akdalinsky irrigation massif of southeastern Kazakhstan. The use of biochar, depending on the application doses, increases the yield of soybeans by 0.16-1.48 t/ha or by 10-96%, rice by 0.17- 0.97 t/ha or by 6-36%, spring wheat by 0.05-1.8 t/ha or 2-65%. In general, over 3 years, the use of biochar provides 1.34-3.68 tons of additional grains of rice, wheat and soybeans in total. The introduction of biochar in doses of 15-20 t/ha for basic tillage helps to improve the bulk, increase the content of agronomically valuable and durable aggregates of the arable soil layer.