Anthropogenic dark earths and africa: A political agronomy of research disjunctures

Abstract

Anthropogenic dark earths (ADE) and biochar are current foci of extraordinary levels of technological optimism, agricultural research and political debate. ADE comprise both black soils associated with long enduring settlement sites and their depositions, and slightly lighter coloured soils that have also been rendered more enduringly fertile than the soils on which they are formed through deposition and cultivation practices. These anthropogenically enriched soils can sustain permanent farming; their fertility is thought to be due in part to their high biochar content. Biochar refers to the carbon-rich products that result when biomass is burned under oxygen-deprived conditions and then buried in the ground (Lehmann and Joseph 2009).