Publications

The objective is to assess the Renewable Energy Technology (RET) development from the perspective of income generating activities and to investigates the role of RET in enhancing employment and income generating activities in the Dhading district of Nepal. Although this study includes the findings on four important components of RET- Biogas, Micro HydroPower, Solar Home System and Ghatta, only relevant information on biogas has been highlighted in this abstract.

The study describes the characteristics of the RET user; in total biogas stoves were used 4.0 hours in a day. Not a single household used biogas for lighting purpose. Paddy, wheat and maize are the main crops produced by the farmers in the area. The interviewed RET user hhs produced on average 1.739, 0.084 and 0.478 mt of paddy, wheat and maize respectively. If the RET user hhs sold an average of 0.405 mt of paddy and 0.098 mt of maize, none of them sold wheat. The RET user hhs also produced and sold crops like millet, mustard and potato.

The biogas user hhs main income generating activities were agricultural based like vegetable, butter (Gheeu) and local wine (Rakshi) production. Fertiliser required for vegetable production is being substituted by slurry produced from biogas. On an average each hh produces 180 kg of vegetable and the estimated revenue from its sales is Rs. 1,620. Some of the feasible incomes generating activities identified are vegetable production, livestock products, poultry farming and agro-processing, which require substantial amounts of labour and energy inputs.

Based on its vast experience in the world and the Asian region, SNV decided in 2009 to expand its’ activities in Cambodia into the agricultural sector. The choice was made to focus on agricultural diversification into fruits and vegetables with the aim to stimulate income generating activities for rural households. This study aims to understand what the underlying motivations are for farmers to start growing vegetables as a cash crop, or not. The study gives interesting insights in what motivates farmers, and how Cambodian cultural beliefs play an important role in that.

The objective was to define effective demand for biogas installations and to know the socioeconomic variables that influence the potential demand for biogas plants and an effective promotional and marketing strategy. Of the total 800 households that were interviewed, 335 represented semi-urban and 67 percent rural VDCs. The proportions of households installing biogas plants increased with the increase in the amount of land and there was positive relationship between size of the cultivated land and size of the plants installed.

Majority of the large farmers (92%) and medium farmers (65%) were from the Terai belt. Most of medium and small farmers installing plants were from rural areas and approximately 50% had electricity facility. About 72 percent had taken loans from banks and 59.7 percent received loans
by the co-operation of GGC. Most of the loans were repaid back. Among households with plants, 8 percent had received various kinds of support from the local NGOs. Of them 50 percent got some financial support. The manpower status of the surveyed biogas companies seemed inadequate, as well as the after-sale-services. Further, the promotional strategies adopted by companies were inadequate.

Of the total 526 households who knew about biogas, 59.9% were willing to install plants. Not all were aware who to contact for plant installation and the cost of it. Radio was the source of information to the largest proportion of the respondents. Both illiterate and those having many years of schooling were almost equally aware of the biogas technology.

In West Africa, domestic investors acquire plots of farm land using their connections, powers and resources. Some policy makers view these investments as a shift towards agribusiness and state that these “new actors” will modernise and professionalize farming and smallholders are asked to make space. Who are those new actors, how did they obtain the land, under what conditions, and how are they investing? Why are authorities engaging in these land transactions and what are the consequences for local farming, rural livelihoods and the environment? This paper presents results of a 2010 survey on the acquisition of rural land by agro-investors in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. It explores implications for agricultural “modernisation” and discusses local responses to regulate this phenomenon.

Como resultado de la caída de los precios de la industria del café, los mercados de cafés diferenciados son vistos como una vía para superar la pobreza. Sin embargo, los mercados diferenciados son más difíciles de penetrar por la calidad de los alimentos agrícolas y los estándares que se deben cumplir, generando así nuevos problemas para los productores. Este estudio de caso se desarrolla para identificar la problemática que enfrentan los pequeños productores en la zona de Marcala, departamento de La Paz, Honduras, que impide acceder a los mercados diferenciados.

This report presents the findings of a study conducted Nov-Dec 2012, in the traditional cattle keeping areas of Zambia. The focus on the study was on untapped milk originating from the traditional cattle sector, with the aim of ensuring a stable and reliable supply for processors in Zambia and an income to smallholder farmers. The overall objective was to provide a solid basis for making informed decisions about interventions in the traditional/smallholder dairy sub-sector related to improving production, animal husbandry practices and milk marketing. The study demonstrates that traditional cattle farmers can supply a substantial amount of milk to support demand in the country, as well as enhance the utilisation capacity of milk processors. Information from the report will be useful for NGOs, the Zambian government and donors, as it enables to identify gaps in the value chain which they can strengthen, and support income generation.

Key findings of the research: confirmed that Ethiopian MFIs are highly dependent on fund from external sources and they will find it difficult to extend loan for biogas user while satisfying the current financial need of their clientele; they also lack human resource capacity to participate in the NBP; they exhibited low level application of modern technologies such as MIS as a result of their limited financial capacity; majority of the MFIs are not aware of biogas technology and its benefit to the society, the environment and the business opportunity for their own organisation provided through new loan product; even if there is lack of proper infrastructure which could result in higher interest rate for rural households compensating the resulting higher transaction cost, MFIs are not charging rural clients higher interest rate, they rather vary the interest rate based on the lending methodology, the type of loan products and repayment period which is the same for all rural, semi-urban and urban clients.

Main conclusions: without building their financial, human resource and institutional capacity, with their current limited capacity Ethiopia MFIs will find it difficult to participate in NBP; lack of awareness about biogas lead MFIs to think that providing loan for biogas user is a risky business and they put forward a number of pre-requisites and additional guarantee requirements for biodigesters for the sake of their own security; lack of awareness found out to be a low level problem that could be addressed by continuous training and awareness raising campaigns.

A feasibility study conducted in Bhutan in 2008 concluded that a small scale domestic biogas program is possible with a technical potential of about 20,000 biogas plants especially in the southern belt and inner mountain valleys. The key question for the development of a substantial biogas program was whether the households having enough number of cattle to install biogas plant are willing and able to invest in it and to feed the plant with the required amount of manure on a daily basis. Hence this market study was conducted to analyze the technical and socio-economic feasibility of biogas program, which assessed the willingness and affordability of livestock keeping households to invest in biogas technology.

Half the population depended on agriculture and is therefore based in the village implying that the biogas plants (home-based) can be managed. Farmers have sufficient land to install biogas plants and slurry pits although location of the cowsheds may not always be near the houses and kitchens in some of the households. There were substantial differences in income among sampled households. Some implied living under poverty while some did not earn any income. Those at the lower rung of the income ladder may not be able to afford to invest in biogas plants unless some financing incentives are provided.

In general, farmers owned cattle and other smaller livestock. Most farmers qualify to install biogas since the majority own more than 3 cattle with the average cattle holding being 6 cattle, most of which are night stalled cattle.

Capacity development is increasingly seen as the sine qua non sine qua non of successful development. Yet despite the growing commitment to show results, documented examples of its impact are hard to find. This paper went in search of available evidence and reviewed 29 case studies of capacity development from three development organisations. Its conclusion is that development organisations and donors need to move away from their narrow focus on accountability to a broader focus on mutual learning. They should also stop looking for the perfect measurement policy and start measuring instead.

This paper explores the construction of a sustainable and culturally appropriate model of indigenous territorial management through the case study of the experiences of the ‘Chiquitania’ region in Boliva and the role of SNV in this. Sharing these experiences should provide some guidelines for the construction of territorial management models in different cultural contexts.

This paper describes characteristics of latrines that have been built with financial support from a development program in rural Cambodia. But it does not intend to capture the outcome of any specific program or project. On the contrary, the analysis is based on the database of the comprehensive multi-stakeholder KAP Household Survey led by MRD in 2010. The objective is to better understand the effects that the act of subsidising may or may not have on the behaviour of rural households and communities.

An energy transition is required in Tanzania. Household energy needs are currently largely met by unsustainable wood fuel resources and many households experience energy poverty. The traditional strategies to introduce modern energy are slow and unable to reach households in inaccessible and poor areas. 

To make an energy transition and to meet the energy demand in Tanzania in a sustainable way solar PV (photovoltaic), improved cook stoves (ICS) and biogas technologies were selected based on the appropriateness of the technologies in rural Tanzania and their sector development.

Moreover this study shows that sustainable energy provision requires a sector of independent enterprises that own the capacity to provide these appropriate energy technologies. Cluster strategies promote the development of groups of such enterprises. The institutional setting for such cluster strategies was found to rely on civil society organizations, mainly because the representation of the rural energy topic on the local level by district governments and public agencies is virtually absent. 

Based on the research in Tanzania inceptive cluster strategies are reported and five types of cluster promotion are categorised. The research results point to cluster promotion through existing value chains as currently the most suitable strategy for achieving this goal. In rural Tanzania it makes economic sense to use the limited infrastructure to integrate energy provision and appropriate energy enterprises with existing business activities, such as diary and Jatropha production. The crux is to create the right institutional setting to develop the mutual benefits of sustainable energy provision for households and enterprises.

This report investigates the revenue generation prospects for greenhouse gas reductions by operating domestic biogas installations and is driven by carbon revenue’s high potential to improve the financial, technical and programmatic sustainability of large scale biogas projects. The actual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by domestic biogas installations depends on the local situation, the size of the installation and the way in which the installation is operated, whereas the “claimable” GHG emission reduction depends on the applied carbon-accounting methodology.

Biogas installations reduce GHG emissions and the emission reduction units can be traded respectively on the compliance (certified emission reduction units produced – CERs) or voluntary market (voluntary emission reduction units produced – VERs). There are, however, trade-offs regarding both markets, such as complexity, cost, financial risk, quality standards and duration that need to be taken into consideration.

In order to clarify the risks involved as well as the mechanisms used in both markets, this report presents an extensive analysis on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) (its project cycle and different methodologies), the voluntary market (the quality assurance methodology developed by the Gold Standard), as well as a guideline that facilitates the choice between CDM and Voluntary market depending on various characteristics. The implications of carbon revenue for biogas projects on the technical and programmatic level are also dealt with in detail.

This intern thesis assesses the economic effect on a household level of using bio-slurry for tea production. In total, one hundred farmers have been asked about current and previous data on the quantity of tea, the price obtained per kilogram of processed tea and the expenditures on both pesticides and chemical fertiliser.

It was concluded that using bio-slurry results in a higher quantity of tea production per sao throughout the whole year. After bringing in the inflation effect the tea cultivated with bio-slurry still obtained a higher price per kilogram of processed tea. The difference in the summer period however was not statistically significant.

Farmers saved money on chemical fertiliser and pesticides. The total average savings (2007) amounted to 2 631 986 VND in total: 2 100 277 VND was saved on chemical fertilizer and 531 619 VND was saved on pesticides.

The increased yields and prices resulted together in an income generating effect of 3 751 509 VND. The income saving and generating effect together result in a total economic impact of 6 383 495 VND per year on a household level. The income effect is larger than the total average investment costs of the biogas installation. After this research it has become clear that from an economic point of view, the bio-slurry is more valuable than the biogas alone.

An agreement was signed between Biogas Support Programme (BSP) and Centre for Energy Studies, Institute of Engineering (CES/IOE) on 6th July 2001 to evaluate the efficiency of biogas stove. For comparison, efficiency of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and kerosene stove (pressure
type and wick type) was also studied. The biogas stove under test was manufactured by Nepal Metal Cast of Butwal, Nepal.

Efficiency of cook stoves could be calculated by several methods. In this study efficiency of cook stoves was determined by calculating the heat gained by the water subjected for heating and amount of fuel consumed during this process. The efficiency of biogas stove calculated as per adopted methodology mentioned above is found to be 49.44 percent, 43.8 percent and 32.26 percent for perfectly controlled, semi-controlled and uncontrolled conditions respectively. The efficiency of a given stove is not constant. It could vary on the basis of surrounding conditions and quality of fuel used. A high value of efficiency could be obtained under controlled conditions. But in practice this value is normally lower than the value found in the controlled laboratory condition.

The efficiency of stove depends upon different conditions:
• Environmental conditions, such as wind, temperature, pressure.
• Shape, specific heat capacity and weight of vessel.
• Burner size of stove and size of bottom face of cooking vessel.
• Energy content of fuel and quality of fuel.

Finally the report comes with recommendations.

This publication compares the biofuels legislation in Latin America. It focuses on:

• Definition of biofuels;
• Authorities for the application of the laws;
• Duties of the enforcement authority;
• Blending of biofuels with fossil fuels;
• Procedure for mixing and distribution;
• Promotional arrangements and tax benefits;
• Promoting the use of biofuels;
• Priority sectors and approach;
• Environmental sustainability;
• Offences and penalties.

The report ends with clear conclusions.