Tag Archives: biogas

Biogas is Important for Rural Children

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From my trip to Uganda, I was able to see firsthand why biogas is so important in poor rural communities. So far, I’ve shown you why it’s important for women and for the environment. Now, I’d like to show you why it’s important for rural children.

The very first farm we visited was that of Miriam and Wilberforce Muwonge in the Ntaawo Ward, Mukono District. Miriam and Wilberforce live with their three children and six grandchildren on about one acre of land. The family had already participated in a Heifer project, from which they received one dairy cow. They had little money for fuel for cooking and lighting, but they had plenty of cow manure. Since Heifer Uganda installed their biogas unit, they have been saving the equivalent of U.S. $10 a month on fuel costs. The children are not only able to attend school, but they are also able to study at night in their home.
In contrast, while driving to another field visit the next day, we passed three boys carrying loads of firewood on their heads. These were not the children or grandchildren of Heifer participants. They most likely do not get to attend school, because they are busy gathering firewood and probably water.
As a mother, I was understandably drawn to the children I saw on this trip. To see the difference Heifer makes in the lives of children was amazing. They look healthy, their clothes are cleaner, they go to school, they read books. The gifts of a dairy cow and a biogas unit, and the accompanying training, sure go a long way.

Biogas is Important for the Environment.

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According to Mongabay:


From 1971 to 1987, Uganda lost 50 percent of its forests, including virtually all of its primary forests.

Between 1990 and 2005, Uganda lost 26.3 percent of its remaining forest cover, and deforestation continues today at a rate of 2.2 percent per year, mostly due to subsistence farming, cutting for fuelwood, and colonization by the burgeoning population.

While Uganda is famous for its mountain gorillas, it is home to some of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in Africa. More than 5,000 plant species are found in the country along with 345 mammals, 1,015 birds, 165 reptiles, and 43 amphibians.

We definitely saw evidence of deforestation and land clearing for fuelwood.
Here’s the healthy side of the road.
And here’s the clearcut side of the road.
The fence is kind of ironic, no?

A stash of wood.
Pierre Ferrari

A video to show the scope of the pile:



These five-foot bags are full of charcoal,
which is made from the wood that’s been cut.
A bag of coal might last a family a few weeks.

According to the UN Population Fund, Uganda’s population is predicted to double by 2025 and available wood will reduce by a third per person. According to the Uganda National Forestry Authority, 97 percent of the population uses charcoal and firewood for cooking.

Alternative fuel sources, such as biogas, are critical to protecting Uganda’s environment.
I promise, only one more demonstration of why biogas is an excellent, appropriate alternative source of cooking and lighting fuel in countries like Uganda. And then, I’ll show you biogas in action!
(Photos by Dero Sanford.)

Biogas is Important for Rural Women

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How many times have you prepared a meal today? On a typical day at home, I’d say I use my stove or microwave three or four times. I cook eggs for breakfast, microwave oatmeal. Steam veggies for my daughter a couple of times, and cook dinner for my husband and myself. Until my trip to Africa, I hadn’t thought much about the convenience of being able to fix a warm meal any time I felt like it.
For the vast majority of families–women, really–in rural Uganda (okay, lots of countries), cooking means something entirely different.

Through the photographer’s lens, this scene has a romantic feel to it. It reminds me of camping. But camping usually only lasts a weekend, not a lifetime.
Cut and collect firewood. Start and maintain the fire. Breathe the smoke and soot. Teach your daughter the same.
Compare this:
With this:
Which would you prefer, day in and day out? Biogas is an affordable, accessible alternative that frees a woman from the tedium that comes with cooking over an open fire. It is better for her health, and for that of her children. Stay tuned to see other reasons biogas is important.

Pierre Ferrari Samples Local Yogurt

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I took so much video yesterday. We went to three meetings and visited two participant households, and I just about recorded everything. I can’t quite even explain how exciting it was to finally see our work in action. And watching Pierre interact with folks–from the USAID officials at the United States Embassy, to exuberant farm families who are were so excited to see and meet him–was a lot of fun, too. He’s clearly in his element, and I think we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

The village we visited has been participating in Heifer’s projects since 2005. They started with dairy cattle, and now they are part of the Uganda Domestic Biogas Programme. I want to do them justice, so I’m going to save the rest of the story (and video!) for a bit later. But, to give you an idea of how entrepreneurial our participants are, here is a short video of a participant who has started his own yogurt business. He uses milk from the local cows, hand packages it himself and sells it.

I truly wish you all could be here to see these families. This morning we are headed to visit a milk chilling plant that is part of the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project. I’m excited about this, as the changes in Dero’s and my travel plans caused us to miss visiting EADD participants in Kenya with Pierre. As we were parting ways last night, Pierre said, “Today you saw Heifer at it’s best. Tomorrow, you will see Heifer’s future.”

The Casual Conversations

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Hanging out with Pierre and our Africa colleagues is a lot of fun. And I’ve already learned some interesting things.

Using biogas slurry from human waste on a vegetable garden is totally fine to do.

Water filters constructed of concrete that use paper and sand can provide a family–and their livestock–with healthy water. And it only costs about $110!

Potholes in Kampala are filled with packed dirt.

The Minister of Agriculture has an armed escort.

It IS possible to fall asleep on some seriously bumpy roads.

Biogas in Uganda – Any Questions?

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Hujambo from Uganda!


This afternoon, Dero and I got to visit the Heifer Uganda office. I had the chance to meet a handful of my colleagues and to see where they do their work. A particular treat was meeting Beinempaka Athanasius, who is the program coordinator for the Uganda Domestic Biogas Program. At the bottom of this post is the profile for this project, to give you a little context.

The other five countries under the larger umbrella project are Burkina Fasso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and Tanzania. In Uganda, a project participant must pay at least 70 percent of the cost of installation. That 70 percent can come from their own savings or through a microcredit loan from a grassroots cooperative. The remaining 30 percent comes from external funding. Currently, there are three different sizes of units available to participants: 6 cubic meters, 9 cubic meters or 12 cubic meters. There is talk of adding a model in 4 cubic meters. The cost of the smallest unit (6 meters) is approximately U.S. $700. To Dero and me, that sounded like nothing. But to Heifer Uganda staff, as well as the participants, that’s a mighty hefty sum.

A challenge that this project has faced is cultural acceptance of the biogas units. To combat this, Heifer Uganda has worked to sensitize communities to how the units can help them. They even have a mobile unit they take with them to make demonstrations. It is often easier to get a family to buy into the concept of using their livestock’s waste to make fuel for cooking and lighting; human waste (which produces a great deal of methane and acts as a catalyst to speed up the breakdown of livestock manure) is another story. Each time a biogas unit is installed, however, a pipe is connected to the composting toilet, but the valve is not turned on until the family agrees to it.

Mobile biogas unit.


Heifer Uganda staff showed us a handful of biogas stovetops and lamps. Until recently, the project imported the stovetops from China. They soon realized, though, that they could teach people to make them locally and less expensively. Surprisingly, the lamps imported from China cost less and are more efficient than anything that can be made here in Uganda. There is such a high demand in Kenya for the lamps, in fact, that you can find them in markets across the country.

The bottom stovetop is the import from China.
The one on top was designed and made in Uganda.


This is the Lotus2. It is the newest biogas stovetop being made in Uganda.

Although biogas has been catching on in Uganda and the other countries participating in the project, it appears that because of the struggle to market the units, as well as the time it takes to train the technicians, promoters and service providers, Heifer Uganda will fall short of installing the target number of biogas units. With such an exciting and promising appropriate technology, it is easy to see how ambitious a project might become, planning to install too many in too short a time.

But there’s absolutely no doubt that these units are changing people’s lives. I look forward to visiting, and sharing with you, families who already have biogas units installed and in use.

What do you think? What would it take to convince you that biogas is the way to go? What questions do you have about biogas?

–Photography by Dero Sanford

Uganda Domestic Biogas Program
The growing demand for fuel has resulted in pressure being exerted on the environment. Trees are cut to provide wood and charcoal for cooking, and burning of fossil fuels has had damaging effects on the environment. Smoke from burning of fuel wood is a hazard to human health. In addition, the cost of domestic fuel is much higher than most households in Uganda can afford. Biogas provides a cheap alternative source of energy for cooking and lighting. The Uganda Domestic Biogas Program therefore aims at addressing this gap by developing and disseminating domestic biogas in rural and semi-urban areas offering the Ugandan population the benefits derived from the use of clean biogas for cooking and lighting and using the bio-slurry to increase agricultural yields with the ultimate goal to establish a sustainable and commercial biogas sector in Uganda.
The program will target 12,160 biogas households in the five-year project cycle. Biogas technology as local knowledge has not been institutionally operational in many parts of Uganda, and the introduction will be a considerate and phased approach. During the first six months, at least 120 biogas plants will be constructed – 90 demonstration and 30 regular plants. The program will start in more densely populated areas, particularly where dairy activities are common (e.g., where Heifer Uganda, Send A Cow and other NGOs have placed cows). Outreach will be improved by making use of partnerships particularly with NGOs, local councils and religious communities active in remote areas.
A multi-stakeholders sector development approach will be used and is based on the establishment, over time, of a market for domestic biogas installations and accessories, in which a well-informed demand side (i.e., in which clients who know what they want and recognize quality and value for money links up with an equally capable supply side that provides the market with quality products at competitive prices and with adequate after-sales services). Such a market is expected to reach a volume that allows a significant number of constructors and credit providers to maintain an economically-sound and profitable level of turnover. In the process toward market development, the government, civil society organizations, and other players in the public and private domain have a role to play, in addition to the main actors in the market.
Particular attention will be paid to vocational training and business development. In Uganda, there are few contractors and skilled masons. No hard data is available on the presence of appropriate construction companies willing and able to build, maintain and repair bio-digesters. Most of the registered construction companies are located in the urban centers. In the past, numerous artisans have been trained in all kinds of masonry and have now established their own micro-enterprises, often not registered as a company. These artisans have the basic knowledge to qualify for the bio-digester mason training and are ideally situated in the villages. If there are not enough registered construction companies available to satisfy the demand, self-employed artisans will be approached to form bio-digester construction teams. The perspective is that these teams will transform into small but full-fledged companies in the long run.

A Small Farm Perspective on the UN Climate Change Summit

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A Heifer project participant cooks on a stove fueled with biogas.


by Terry Wollen

This year’s international round of discussion on climate change is taking place in Cancun, Mexico. Officially known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, this summit is focusing on numerous topics – not the least of which is greenhouse gasses. Indeed, one of the important themes around climate change has to do with mitigation of the effects of greenhouse gasses – in other words, “What can we do to make these changes less severe or hostile?”

Here at Heifer, we’ve been answering this question for years through our innovative yet simple agroecology programs. All over the developing world we’re fighting the environmental effects of greenhouse gasses by training smallholder farmers to use sustainable methods of rearing animals and raising crops.

Here are just a few of our programs that improve local ecosystems while helping families lift themselves out of poverty:

· Improving soil water retention through planting trees and wise grazing management

· Controlling soil erosion

· Rotational grazing practices for small and large ruminants like goats, cattle, llamas alpacas, and water buffalo

· Periodic or sustained use of zero-grazing pens

· Improved animal feeding with local resources, using an educated understanding of animal nutrient requirements

· Better manure management through composting, covering wet and dry manure storage and incorporation of this animal by-product in crop grounds.

While animals and animal by-products do emit greenhouse gasses, an educated understanding of where these gasses come from and means to reduce their impact are mitigation practices that can be accomplished by all smallholder farmers.

Let me offer a real-world example: In the Conco community in Copan Ruinas, Honduras, the family of Jesus Esquivel and other partners of the local Heifer Honduras project have transformed the fragile surrounding hillsides from erosion and excessive tree harvesting to a sloping landscape that now holds water for irrigation, productive livestock for community markets and a school for local children. This has been accomplished through wise management of livestock grazing and zero-grazing pens, tree planting, contour land management for farming, manure composting and application to soils, along with improved kitchens using biogas from the animal pens and improved stoves.

The issues surrounding greenhouse gasses and climate change are many and complex. Heifer International can speak with authority on ways to mitigate the effects of climate change as we’ve seen our model yield real, life-changing results in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Terry Wollen is the Interim Vice President for Advocacy at Heifer International and a former livestock veterinary practitioner.