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MAKING ECONOMIC SENSE By
Naresh Newar SUNSARI—Farmer Jit Narayan Chaudhary and his wife Jagita relax in their kitchen and start calculating their household expenses. They managed to save more this month. They are jubilant with the news. “We’re glad that we took the initiative for installing the biogas plant in our village,” says Chaudhary, who was the first villager in his Dumartoka village of Khanar Village Development Committee (VDC) in Sunsari district to invest in the biogas technology when representatives from biogas companies were visiting each household to educate and promote the villagers about the biogas technology and how it could change their lives. For poor farmers in his village, the initial cost of Rs 30,000 to install a biogas plant system, including a cooking stove is quite a huge amount. However, the Biogas Support Programme (BSP), a national programme implemented by Biogas Sector Partnership –Nepal (BSP-Nepal) gave him such a good financial plan that he decided to try it out. BSP is currently funded by Directorate General for International cooperation of the Netherlands (DGIS) of Netherlands government through Netherlands Development Organisation in Nepal (SNV/Nepal), government of Nepal through Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) and government of Germany through the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) of Germany. The programme, which provides technical as well as subsidy for families to build biogas plants in rural areas, has helped a large number of low-income rural households to make biogas technology affordable and accessible to a great extent. A poor farmer himself, Chaudhary managed to build his own plant with subsidy of Rs 6,500 provided by BSP. All he needed was an additional Rs 12,000, which he managed to get a low-interest loan from a Grameen Bank to whom he would repay in 50 weeks. In addition, he also received an additional subsidy of Rs 1,500 from BSP. In 2006, ‘additional subsidy programme’ was initiated in collaboration between BSP and relevant development organizations especially with Grameen Banks to provide extra subsidy to help the poor who had at least one cattle and small plot of land. Those living in the remote hill districts would receive the highest subsidy of Rs 3,500, and the families in the Terai would receive Rs 1,500 and those in the hills would get Rs 2,500. Over 400 households have already received the support. Today, many farmers like Chaudhary are glad they made the decision of building their own plants, as they are able to reap more benefits than they had imagined. Saving from biogas “The biogas technology has made so much difference to us. Surely, all families who own biogas plants will feel the same way,” says Chaudhary. Over the past one year, Chaudhary has been able to reduce his household expenditure by switching from wood to biogas for fuel ever since he installed his own biogas plant in his house at his Dumartoka village of Sunsari district. Chaudhary used to spend over Rs 60 everyday to buy firewood. Now, due to biogas, his family does not have to spend anymore money to buy any firewood as fuel from biogas suffices to cook food for the family. Within few months of installing his biogas plant, he was not only able to save enough money but he also sparked interest among other villagers who saw that the investment on the biogas plant was really worthwhile. “The neighbors often come to us and ask for advice as they have seen how easy it is to save money with the help of biogas plant,” explains Chaudhary’s wife smiling with pride. They were the same people who had cautioned her not to risk their savings by investing in a biogas technology about which they were sceptical. They believed that biogas would not benefit the farmers. Today, more houses in the village and other areas in the district are fast building biogas plants with help of biogas companies who help them in the construction. Now even these companies are competing with each other to market their technical services to the poor households. Old stories but never stale Such stories about biogas are already old in the country but its consistent success among the users continues to inspire more people to build their own plants everyday from the terai to the hills and the mountain areas. Unti this year, the number of biogas plant users has reached 172,505, according to BSP-Nepal. With over 98 percent of plants operating, BSP has been a world model for successful biogas programmes. “All we did was to provide guidance and boost the motivation of the villagers so that they could decide how best to use their cattle dung to clean gas and improved manure,” says Saroj Rai, executive director of BSP-Nepal. In this district alone, around 9,000 families have already built gobar gas plants under BSP with technical help from biogas companies like Public Energy Development Company and Gobar Gas Tatha Krisi Yantra Bikas. “Demand is even increasing as people have started to realise the immediate positive impact the biogas has made in the lives of many farming villagers,” explains Dilip Kumar Bhandari, a biogas expert involved in the sector for over three decades (Are you sure …. for so long?). “Demand is even increasing as people have started to realize the immediate positive impact biogas has made in the lives of many farming villagers,” explains Dilip Kumar Bhandari, biogas expert. Pro-poor programmes
The cost for complete plant construction and cooker costs over Rs 30,000 but the farmers have to pay only half of it due to the government subsidy through additional financial aid of German and Dutch governments through KFW and DGIS/SNV respectively. “The provision of subsidy has helped many families to own their own plants,” says Tilak Shrestha, manager of Kantipur Gobar Gas in Mohattari district, where his company has built over 500 plants in the last three years. The poor families still have to find a huge
amount of cash and most of them get low-interest loans from a Grameen
Bank at the rate of 12 percent but they still need to show enough
property to guarantee the timely payback in 50 weeks. If the client
was poor, the loan from a Grameen bank would be provided with a
group collateral and asset would not be required. He or she would
also be provided with an additional subsidy. The poorest families in the context of biogas include those who have insufficient land to farm and do not own any cattle. This means that they would not even have the most important and basic raw material, namely cattle dung. In addition, they lack access to water and most of all enough land to build the plant. Our ultimate objective is to ensure that our programme reaches the poor but it is quite difficult to reach the poorest now,” says Rai. Besides direct approaches like providing additional subsidy for the poor, in cooperation with the Grameen Banks, BSP-Nepal is also linking up its programme with other rural development and poverty-related initiatives for better pro-poor orientation. ---xxx--- |
Success
Stories
Despite
the success of the biogas programme, there are many challenges to
make this technology accessible for especially those who need it
the most, namely the poor, who are the ones using most of the forest
resources as they have no alternative.
