Publications

A better life for two million households in Africa through the implementation of domestic biogas plants was the ambitious target set at a May 2007 conference in Nairobi, Kenya, organized by the Biogas Africa Initiative.

This article goes into the past of biogas in Africa, its technical potential and current biogas needs. Further, it reports the launching of the Africa Biogas Initiative in May 2007 in Nairobi and the endorsement of the business plan, which aims to install 20 million biogas plants in Africa by 2020. The vision of the Initiative is to succeed in the implementation of biogas technology in African countries as a market-oriented partnership between governments, private sector players, civil society agents and international development partners. The specific targets of the initiative to be achieved by 2020 are presented in the article. The article also presents a short explanation of the guiding principles for national programmes and it concludes with activities in Africa at country level and the way forward.

If you would like to know more about scenario building, you can read an article (in Spanish) on the subject which appeared in Estrategia y Negocios in February 2009.

Upland communities in Laos have the benefit of access to relatively large tracts of land, compared with neighbouring countries. Yet these communities use their resources mainly for subsistence production. Adding vallue to agricultural and forest products remains difficult: there is little capital to invest in technology that could add value to products, infrastructure and storage is poor, and market information is often lacking. Market awareness projects in northern Laos are showing that these sorts of challenges can be overcome.

This report analyses the benefits of China´s family-size bio-digesters. Like many other Asian countries China also has its own renewable energy programme.The construction of 14 million family-size anaerobic bio-digesters in China is thought to have improved the farm economy of many rural households in China. The general view is that the use of a bio-digester will positively contribute to rural household income by reduction of expenditures on fuels and on fertilizers and pesticides, freeing up income that can be spent otherwise. The effect of using the residue of the digestion process is believed to increase farm produce also. This report shows that sound empirical support for these beliefs is, however, absent. Through a survey carried out for users and nonusers in three villages (two in the Gansu province and one in the Sichuan province) the report shows that the effects of the use of bio-digesters on the farm economy are often small if not non-existent: money saved on energy expenditures are small and not significant, savings on fertilizers and pesticides are absent, and the increase in farm income is also not significant and cannot be attributed to the use of the bio-digester.

However, the overall benefit is positive in all of the villages and with appropriate support, the benefits can be significantly improved. Furthermore, the bio-digester contributes considerably to a more convenient lifestyle and an improved indoor environment. The benefits are not measured in terms of money, rather much appreciated by those who invested in a bio-digester.