Each year, as the dry season settles over Southeast Asia, the skies fill with the haze of open-field burning. For millions of smallholder farmers, burning crop residues has long been the fastest and cheapest way to clear land, but it comes at a steep cost. The smoke contributes to hazardous PM2.5 air pollution, accelerates climate change, and harms the health of entire communities.
At Biochar Life, we’ve seen this challenge up close. For farmers, the issue isn’t a lack of awareness—it’s a lack of alternatives. Agricultural waste piles up quickly, and the options for safe, affordable disposal are limited. That’s where biochar offers a rare win-win: a way to prevent burning, improve soil, and permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Biochar is made when biomass—such as rice husks, corn stalks, or coconut shells—is heated in low-oxygen conditions. Instead of burning to ash, the material transforms into a stable form of carbon that can stay locked in the soil for hundreds of years. For smallholders, biochar improves soil health, boosts yields, and reduces the amount of fertilizers needed. For the planet, it’s one of the most scalable forms of carbon removal available today.
Biochar Life was founded on a simple idea: farmers could be climate heroes. By turning waste into a resource, smallholders not only improve their livelihoods but also help tackle one of the region’s most pressing environmental problems—smoke pollution.
Over the past three years, that idea has proven powerful. Together with our partners, we’ve helped more than 2,000 farmers produce and apply biochar across Kenya, Malawi, Thailand, and Indonesia, preventing thousands of tonnes of emissions from open burning. In the process, we’ve delivered over 21,000 tonnes of verified carbon removals and redistributed more than US$1 million back into farming communities.
As Biochar Life moves into its next phase, we’re asking an important question: how can we make biochar production cleaner, smarter, and easier to scale?
In 2026, we’ll launch the “Aom Kiln” a next-generation, farmer-friendly kiln designed for safety, efficiency, and methane prevention. Named after our co-founder Aom, who has trained thousands of farmers in biochar production, the kiln combines local knowledge with modern engineering. It’s built to be low-cost yet high-integrity—a design that ensures consistent quality and measurable climate impact.
Alongside the kiln, we’re developing a digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (dMRV) system. This platform will use simple field tools and mobile data to track production, measure emissions, and verify outcomes. It’s a crucial step toward making smallholder biochar systems as transparent and accountable as large-scale industrial projects.
Together, these innovations will allow us to expand into new regions, including Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines, where we’re already exploring partnerships with organisations such as Grameen. They will also help us scale production while maintaining integrity and trust.
Our model remains farmer-first. In our distributed, or Kontiki, model, smallholders are paid for their participation and receive biochar free of charge for use on their own land. In our mid-tech model, farmers provide agricultural biomass—which would otherwise be burned—in exchange for high-quality biochar.
In both models, the focus is on waste that would otherwise go up in smoke. The result is cleaner air, healthier soil, and stronger communities.
This is more than a carbon project. It’s a rethinking of how rural innovation happens. Each kiln, each farmer, each tonne of biochar represents a step toward cleaner air, fertile soil, and a more resilient agricultural economy.
As Biochar Life transitions into a new leadership phase—with Matt Rickard as CEO and Jason Highberger as Chairman—the company remains anchored in its founding mission of integrity and impact. What’s evolving is how innovation will drive that mission forward.
An equity investment round launching in early 2026 will help accelerate the development and certification of the Aom Kiln, expand digital MRV capabilities, and scale operations across Southeast Asia. The funding will also allow us to hold a limited pool of spot credits, giving flexibility to respond quickly to market demand while continuing to reinvest in community impact.
Tackling smoke pollution and climate change simultaneously is no small task, but it is achievable. The most effective solutions don’t come from the top down; they grow from the ground up.
At Biochar Life, we believe the farmers at the heart of this problem are also the heart of the solution. With the right technology, training, and partnerships, they can lead a regional transformation—one that turns haze into hope, waste into value, and carbon into opportunity.
The next chapter of biochar isn’t just about removing CO₂. It’s about building trust, improving livelihoods, and creating cleaner air for millions across Southeast Asia. And that’s the future we’re working toward, one kiln, one farmer, and one harvest at a time.
We’re entering an exciting new phase of growth as we prepare to launch our next-generation Aom Kiln. If you’re interested in supporting our 2026 equity round or learning more about our work, we’d welcome a conversation. hello@biochar.life