In agriculture, the term drought refers to a scenario where the amount of water available is insufficient to meet the needs of crops. Drought has the potential to damage crop output in various ways and to various extents. Furthermore, as a result of global climate change, drought frequency and severity is increasing. These changes have already began to decrease average crops yields, an unfortunate change when compared with the increasing trend over the last three decades following better farming technology. California, one of the nations primary agriculture states, currently faces one of the most severe droughts in history. Therefore, food security and ecological health depend on the cability of the scientific community to improve crops' drought resistance.

Through this experiment, biochar was used as a soil supplement in an attempt to improve the drought tolerance of various plants grown industrially. Biochar is pyrogenic carbon made from the carbonization of biomass. Although this charcoal like substance is primarily studied as a tool to sequester atmospheric carbon, some previous studies have suggested that it has the potential to mitigate drought conditions. Through this study, biochar was added in various doses (15% and 50% of soil by volume) to Lactuca sativa variation longifolia seeds and Lycopersicon esculentum seeds grown under various water conditions. In this case, drought conditions were quantified through extensive preliminary studies involving tests of soil carrying capacity. Drought conditions were defined as twenty percent of the water holding capacity (29 mL) while sufficient water was defined as sixty percent of the water holding capacity (87 mL). Biochar was produced from sugar cane by sealing raw sugar cane in a metal tin and leaving it in open flame for several hours. The rate of germination, overall growth, and survival rates were then measured.

The results of this study show that the addition of sugar cane based biochar improve the general growth of both Lactuca sativa variation longifolia and Lycopersicon esculentum. Studies of Lactuca sativa show that a soil composition of 15% biochar has the best effects on drought tolerance. Both biochar groups show greater growth than groups without biochar. On average, plants grown in biochar had a higher survival rate, regardless of watering. The strongest statistical results related to germination, as plants grown in a 50% biochar soil mixture germinate more than twice as fast as plants grown in plain top soil.

In the case of Lycopersicon esculentum, plants grown in 15% biochar composition show the greatest increase in growth compared to plants grown without biochar under drought conditions and plants grown without biochar with sufficient water. Plants grown in a 15% biochar mixture germinate twice as fast as plants grown in plane top soil. Overall, both plants show higher survival rates when drought conditions were mitigated with biochar. In addition, Plants grown in biochar can last without water more than three times longer than controls. Furthermore, while fungus appeared in the control groups, no fungus appeared in groups with biochar. In the future, it may be worthwhile to investigate the effects of biochar on preventing unwanted fungus growth. Furthermore, it would be ideal to develop methods to make biochar from compost.