Across Thailand, from rice fields to rubber plantations, a quiet transformation is taking shape.
For over a year, our team at Happy Ground has been leading one of the most comprehensive studies on biochar in the region — a three-year program designed to generate real-world data on how biochar can improve yields, restore soil health, and make regenerative agriculture viable at scale for farmers.
Why this research matters
Biochar has long been recognized as one of the most promising tools to remove carbon from the atmosphere while rebuilding degraded soils.
There are already many biochar studies in Asia, but most are confined to academic settings: small, short-term trials that rarely translate into large-scale, farmer-led adoption.
To make biochar part of real supply chains, we need research that reflects the complexity of farming systems, not just laboratory conditions.
That means measuring what happens in actual fields, across diverse soils, crops, and climates, over several seasons.
This is exactly what our ongoing research sets out to do.
From the field to the dataset
Our studies span key crops across Thailand:
Off-season Rice in Pathum Thani
In-season Rice in Roi Et
Sugarcane in Nakhon Sawan
Rubber in Songkla
Oil palm in Chumphon
Durian in Chumphon
Each site follows consistent protocols to measure soil carbon, fertilizer efficiency, crop performance, and farm economics over three full growing cycles.
Three years give us enough time to capture seasonal variations, long-term soil responses, and the way farmers adapt as they see the benefits firsthand.
This body of work will form the foundation of a peer-reviewed scientific publication and contribute to the evidence base for biochar and regenerative agriculture in tropical regions.
Co-designing research with farmers and data systems
Our research is designed not just for scientists, but for farmers.
Every experiment is co-created with farming communities to ensure it reflects real practices, local constraints, and what success means to them.
Within our team, agronomists and software engineers work together to build a data system that translates field results into formats compatible with global frameworks such as SBTi, ISO 14064, and ISO 14067.
This alignment ensures that what happens in the field can be understood by anyone, from farmers to corporate sustainability teams.
It bridges local practice with international standards and helps ensure that climate action stays grounded in real impact.
What we expect to learn
Previous studies show that biochar can improve fertilizer efficiency, soil carbon, and crop yields across many conditions.
Our work builds on this knowledge by validating these outcomes in Thailand’s tropical soils and creating standardized datasets that help farmers, companies, NGOs, and policymakers make better decisions.
We have already seen promising results from the field and will share these findings in upcoming articles as part of our effort to build one of the most complete biochar datasets in Southeast Asia.
A foundation for scalable adoption
This research is not just about data. It is about trust.
We are building evidence that farmers, investors, and partners can rely on, showing that biochar is more than a climate solution. It is a pathway to healthier soils, stronger yields, and more resilient livelihoods.
By combining long-term field research, digital traceability, and farmer co-design, we are creating the foundation for scalable, verified adoption of biochar across Thailand and beyond.
Because in the end, the most powerful solutions do not start in boardrooms or laboratories.
They start in the soil, with the people who care for it every day.
