The Growing Market for Soil Regeneration in Africa

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There is a challenge of soil degradation across Africa. And because this challenge affects yield and stresses arable lands, it is shaping the future of Africa’s food production. But as they say, opportunity lies where there are challenges and soil degradation in Africa has paved the way for soil regeneration as a business model.

The conversation around soil regeneration should move beyond environmental activism to economic benefits by transforming waste, carbon, and biological systems into profitable value chains. This article discusses how composting, biochar, and microbial inputs can be three of the most promising solutions despite offering different pathways to soil restoration and revenue.

Composting

Composting is the most accessible entry point into the soil regeneration market in Africa. It’s a simple concept with enormous potential: take organic waste  (from farms, markets, or cities) and convert it into nutrient-rich soil amendments that farmers can use.

Unlike many agribusinesses, composting doesn’t require exotic technology. What it does demand is efficient waste collection, good process control, and reliable offtake agreements. Municipal waste systems, food processors, and farms all generate a steady supply of feedstock. With that in hand, a composting venture can turn what used to be a disposal cost into a revenue stream.

However, the profit margins aren’t really high, because compost is a volume business, and you have to sell a lot of it. But the economics work when logistics are optimised and branding communicates quality.

The real power of composting lies in its role in a circular economy. Through cleaning up cities, reducing landfill methane, and restoring agricultural soils, all at once. For small or mid-sized entrepreneurs, it’s an entry-level regenerative business with strong social and environmental value.

Biochar

If composting is about turning waste into value, biochar is about capturing that value and multiplying it through carbon markets.

Biochar is produced by heating organic residues (palm shells, wood waste, crop stalks, etc) in a low-oxygen process called pyrolysis. The pyrolysis results in a stable, carbon-rich material that improves soil structure, retains moisture, and locks carbon underground for centuries.

It’s not a cheap venture. Setting up pyrolysis units and meeting emission standards requires capital and technical expertise. But the potential payoff is significant. Biochar can be sold directly to farmers and horticultural companies, yet its real draw lies in carbon removal credits. Because biochar stores carbon so effectively, certified projects can sell verified credits to global companies looking to offset emissions.

In Africa, early players like Nigerian agritech startups Releaf Earth and Growth AgricVenture are already exploring this opportunity. It’s just a matter of time before we see more industrial-scale projects in Africa integrating biochar into their sustainability portfolios, blending waste management, carbon finance, and regenerative farming. Investors are beginning to take notice because the model combines three appealing elements in waste reduction, carbon value, and soil productivity.

For entrepreneurs with access to biomass and investment capital, biochar sits at the intersection of climate tech and agribusiness, a space that is only going to expand as carbon credit markets mature.

Microbial Inputs

The third leg of the soil regeneration triad is microbial inputs, which are biofertilisers, nitrogen fixers, and soil microbes that enhance plant growth naturally.

Unlike compost or biochar, microbial inputs don’t depend on heavy infrastructure. Their value is built on research, formulation, and credibility. These products contain beneficial bacteria or fungi that fix nitrogen, improve nutrient uptake, and boost soil resilience. When applied to seeds or soil, they can significantly increase yields while reducing dependency on synthetic fertilisers.

Africa’s microbial input market is still young but expanding fast. Local startups and international agritech firms are investing in laboratories, registration processes, and dealer networks. The profit margins are high because these products are lightweight, branded, and scalable. A single litre of liquid inoculant can treat several hectares, making distribution more efficient than bulk fertiliser.

For microbial inputs, demand isn’t the market drawback. If anything, it should be the greatest propeller. Because synthetic fertilisers are becoming a luxury many farmers can’t afford to have. So they are now open to natural soil boosters. What’s holding the market back is trust and regulation. 

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The Market Dynamics

Composting, biochar, and microbial inputs aren’t competing solutions. They complement each other as part of regeneration efforts, yielding both environmental and economic benefits.

As briefly mentioned earlier in the article, compost tends to operate as a volume business. The underlying logic is that there’s abundant organic waste (farm residues, market waste, municipal organic streams) and farmers always need affordable soil-improvement inputs. But because compost is bulky, low-unit‐value, and often sold as a commodity, pricing tends to be modest.

For instance, a pilot in Zimbabwe treated “high-quality commercial compost” as selling for about US $30-50 per tonne, according to a Zimbabwean report. Margins are therefore thin unless you optimise by sourcing low-cost feedstock (even securing tipping-fees), reducing haulage costs, improving process efficiency, and perhaps selling branded or bagged premium compost rather than bulk. If logistics are inefficient or offtake uncertain, the model struggles.

We see a different dynamic with biochar. Demand is still emerging, but there is a growing premium because the product serves both soil-fertility and carbon-sequestration functions. For biochar, pricing ranges are wider and highly dependent on quality, certification (carbon credits), specification (carbon content, ash content), proximity to markets, and whether carbon credits are included.

According to Enchar, a platform for biochar sales and purchase, large industrial off-takes in Europe are quoted in the range of €500-900 per dry tonne (including CO₂ certificates). What this means is, if you invest appropriately, biochar offers a higher margin per unit than compost, but it also carries higher capital outlay, technological complexity, quality risk and dependence on carbon-market access. 

For microbial inputs like inoculants, the unit sales volume is lower, but the margin per litre or unit can be much higher because the product is concentrated, brand-led, and often performance-based. For example, in Nigeria, a 1 kg pack of mycorrhizal inoculant was listed at ₦19,500 ($13.40 at the time of writing). 

The business challenge here is credibility, distribution (dealers or direct), branding and regulatory registration. Once you crack those, you can command good margins and scale through recurring supply.

When you combine these three streams, something interesting happens in the business logic and pricing. Instead of selling compost only, or biochar-only, or microbial input-only, you are offering a bundle or system of compost that is enhanced with biochar and inoculants, for example. That allows you to position the product at a premium (because you’re offering more value) and also diversify your revenue streams.

In terms of pricing, the hybrid model lets you do several things:

• You can increase the unit price by adding value and branding it as a regenerative soil package, not just compost.
  
• You can reduce cost base by using your own raw waste feedstock, integrating biochar production and microbial manufacturing (or partnerships) so you capture more of the value chain.
  
• You can create ancillary revenue e.g., carbon credits revenue from biochar, service fees for soil testing, and subscription models for farmers for recurring supply. As a result, the margin profile shifts as you move away from low-margin high-volume commodity to a higher-margin value-added product. You also differentiate yourself and build closer customer relationships.

In practical pricing terms, your compost-only product might sell at a modest price with thin margins. If you add biochar and microbes, you might command 2-3x the price and perhaps double the margin. Also your cost per unit may rise but your revenue and margin often rise faster because of the value you capture.

The hybrid model often gives you risk insulation because if commodity compost margins tighten, you still have high-value branded products. If carbon-credit markets grow, you capture that upside, and if microbial adoption increases, you are positioned.

Why the Timing Is Right

A few years ago, the business case for soil regeneration was largely about sustainability and environmental responsibility. Now it’s economic. Food companies need traceable, low-carbon supply chains. Cities need to manage organic waste sustainably. Farmers are searching for alternatives to expensive synthetic fertilisers. Every one of these forces points toward regenerative inputs.

Africa’s advantage lies in abundance with vast feedstock availability, entrepreneurial talent, and a growing pool of sustainability-linked capital. Investors will increasingly realise the opportunities in soil regeneration.

Looking ahead, the most resilient businesses in this sector will be the ones that combine multiple soil regeneration tools into unified enterprises. Composters who produce biochar for carbon finance. Microbial firms partnering with organic fertiliser manufacturers. Carbon footprint projects built around soil health metrics rather than tree counts.

This integration moves the narrative beyond single products to holistic soil enterprises earning from carbon, waste, and productivity simultaneously. In the end, we will have a regenerative economy built from the ground up, where farmers, entrepreneurs, and investors all share in the value of restored soil.

In Conclusion

The market for soil regeneration in Africa is not theoretical. Every regenerative soil practice  offer distinct opportunities. But together, they form the foundation of a new kind of agribusiness. For entrepreneur, the path is to start where your strengths lie and grow toward integration. While for investors, it is a frontier market with massive impact.