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Abstract

Brazil is under unique pressure to adopt sustainable agricultural practices due to its intricate biodiversity and globally dominant agricultural sector. Increasing soil degradation, agricultural land expansion, and rising levels of atmospheric carbon are nationwide concerns that require multifaceted solutions. Integrated agricultural systems, which rehabilitate soils through crop, forage, and livestock rotation as well as biochar—a carbon-rich soil amendment—can address such concerns. These sustainable farming practices improve carbon sequestration and soil fertility; however, uptake remains minimal due to environmental, economic, and policy barriers. Accordingly, this paper proposes a comprehensive model of integrated systems and biochar, in which the benefits of one system can counteract the impediments of the other: biochar can reduce the volatility of integrated systems while integrated systems can reduce the costliness of biochar. This paper will first discuss the environmental impacts of integrated systems and biochar before noting how such impacts are affected in the comprehensive model. The next section will similarly discuss economic impacts in the same manner, and the last section will outline integrated systems policy and the demand for creating biochar policy. This paper offers a holistic review of integrated systems and biochar and encourages further improvements through the combination of both methods.

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