Publications

This article describes the biogas activities in Asia by highlighting the success stories of China, India, and Nepal. Further, the article describes the scaling up of the Asia Biogas Programme. Vietnam is highlighted and the National Biogas and Manure Programme in Nepal is described, as well as the Biodigester Support Programme in Cambodia. Further, the article continues with CDM as a financing instrument.

The report concludes that it is most unfortunate that the reference to projects that replace nonrenewable biomass has been removed from the small-scale CDM methodologies. It is of hope that alternative methods for calculating emission reductions for small-scale project activities that propose the switch from non-renewable to renewable biomass will become available soon.

G4E guidelines for collection of data (e.g. baseline study, research, monitoring and evaluation)

This Practice Brief highlights various approaches used to promote gender equality in the agriculture; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); and renewable energy (RE) sectors in Asian countries. SNV Asia has provided extensive capacity-building support in these sectors while putting ‘inclusive development’ at the forefront of the development agenda. The Practice Brief is an attempt to document practices from the field based on successful experiences of SNV in Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Nepal and Vietnam. It aims to be a quick reference for development practitioners (within and outside SNV) who are committed to mainstream gender in these three sectors.

Advisors are encouraged to self-reflect, analyse, observe/record the change at different levels (link to managing for results).

This factsheet contains information on SNV's improved cookstoves around the globe, as well as its partnership in the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public private initiative led by the UN Foundation.

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, with the financial support of the Netherlands Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), organised a two-day international workshop on ' the Financing of Domestic Biogas Plants' during the period 23-24 October, 2008. The workshop conducted in Bangkok, Thailand, was attended by 68 participants from 21 different countries in Asia, Africa, Central America and Europe. 

The overall objective of the international workshop was to exchange a maximum of information about the use of financial instruments for financing domestic biogas plants among the participants, practitioners, bankers, researchers and policy makers, and to arrive at clear status of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the use of the various financial instruments among the participants. 

This brief report summarises the purpose, schedule, presentations and outcome of discussions related to the workshop. The workshop proceeding includes the summary of plenary presentations, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis carried out by the participants on different aspects of financing domestic biogas plants (e.g. investment subsidy and credit). 

Further there was a presentation of country papers by participants of China, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Rwanda. Additionally, two papers on carbon credit and financing biogas plants were presented. Finally, Country action plans were prepared by respective participants. The evaluation results clearly indicated that the workshop has been highly successful in achieving its objectives.

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, in association with the Dutch Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS), organised a two-day international workshop on 'Use of Bio-slurry from Domestic Biogas Plants' during the period 27-28 September, 2006.

The workshop was conducted in Bangkok, Thailand and attended by 51 participants from 13 different countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. The objective was to create an organised platform for experts working in domestic biogas sector in different  countries to share best practices on the use of bio-slurry at micro level and to identify potential stimulus as well as barriers to further optimise the use of bioslurry.

This workshop proceeding is intended to transfer the ideas and views of those attending the workshop to a wider audience of bio-slurry practitioners.

It is expected that this proceeding will contribute to the broader ongoing discussions about programmes and activities that will facilitate the inclusion of effective use of bio-slurry in initiatives on promotion and development of biodigester technology in different parts of the globe.

This workshop proceeding includes:

• Summary of country presentations of China, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Vietnam on the status of bio-slurry application;
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis carried out by the participants on the different aspects of use of bio-slurry;
• Country action plans prepared by respective participants on popularising the use of bioslurry as an organic fertiliser.

As much as possible, the issues raised by the participants during different sessions have been presented in their own words.

The seventh meeting of the experts’ network was organised in Hanoi, Vietnam, during the period April 8-9, 2009. This meeting of experts followed the internal Biogas/Renewable Energy Team Meeting of SNV Asia Region.

The overall objective of the meeting of the network of experts was to share the lessons learned, and to discuss possibilities for improvement on the training activities related to domestic biogas programmes. The discussion focussed particularly on the weaknesses/problems or evident successes of the training activities conducted so far by the different biogas programmes, and the possible solutions to overcome the problems, as well as prospects to share the success. The key
question was: how to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of all biogas and bio-manure related training activities?

This external network meeting on domestic biogas consisted of a field visit to provincial biogas office and biogas households in Ha Tay Province near Hanoi (8th April), and a working meeting on biogas training activities (9th April 2009). An overview and evaluation of training activities under biogas programmes in China, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh was given. Further, there were group discussions, presentations and plenary discussions held.

The case study presents a relatively small but meaningful pilot project that is presently scaling up from 400 to 3,000 farmers (with an ultimate goal of 10,000 participants) in Nepal’s most important apple growing district. The project focuses on increasing market access for small farmers from a remote district through brokering improved commercial relationships with agribusinesses operating in the national market. A concrete account is given of a value chain development intervention that addresses demand, transactions, supply and policy issues. Farmers’ incomes improved as apple prices increased with 200 to 300%. Business have benefited significantly due to more reliable supply, improved quality grading and certification, and import substitution.