Turning Carbon into Control: Biochar-Driven Resistance to Soil-Borne Plant Diseases

Soil-borne plant diseases pose a persistent and complex challenge to global agriculture, largely due to the long-term survival of pathogens in soil and their limited responsiveness to conventional chemical control measures. Pathogens such as Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp. are particularly destructive, causing severe root, collar, and vascular diseases across a wide range of crops. In recent years, biochar a carbon-rich material produced through biomass pyrolysis has gained attention as a soil amendment capable of transforming disease-conducive soils into suppressive systems. Rather than acting as a direct antimicrobial agent, biochar mediates disease resistance by modifying soil physicochemical properties, restructuring microbial communities, regulating rhizosphere chemistry, and priming plant defense responses.