XPRIZE Competition Grand Prize winner Mati Carbon has embarked on a new partnership focused on field trials that will deploy enhanced rock weathering (ERW) in tropical regions.
The company has signed a global Memorandum of Understanding with The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), part of CGIAR, to run the field trials in smallholder farming systems.
Under the 5-year agreement, the partners will work on trial design, data sharing, publication, and joint fundraising.
So far, the case for ERW has been built mostly on data from temperate, commercial agriculture, while soils in the tropics are older, more acidic, and more weathered, in principle needing the strongest agronomic response.
The collaboration between Mati and The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT aims to help address this gap by expanding the evidence and knowledge base on the impact of ERW over soils in tropical regions.
As an experienced ERW specialist, Mati points out that across 235 paired plots in India, its team recorded a median yield increase of about 25% unlocked by spreading crushed basalt rocks on soils.
What the ERW approach is missing now is independent replication that would turn results like these into a recommendation that an extension service, a ministry, or a farmer organization can act on.
Relevant: Mati Carbon Releases A Free App For Stress-Testing ERW Data
What this ERW parthership aims to achieve
Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Managing Director for Africa at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, explained, “Our role is to generate independent, published evidence under the real-world conditions in which smallholder farmers operate.”
“By working with farmers and national partners across tropical regions, we can determine where enhanced rock weathering delivers agronomic and climate benefits, where it does not, and what would be required for responsible scaling,” she added.
The Alliance will lead on the design and analysis of trials, which will assess whether crushed basalt can be recommended responsibly across diverse tropical smallholder systems, crops, and agroecological conditions in which the Alliance and its partners work.
Findings will then be published on whether or not the Alliance favors the practice.
Read more: Mati Carbon Is The First Company To Deliver Credits Under The New V1.2 ERW Isometric Protocol
