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Household energy economics in rural Ethiopia: A cost-benefit analysis of biogas energy
Abstract
Limited success in promoting improved energy sources, such as biogas, in rural areas of developing countries has been partly blamed on insufficient understanding of household energy use patterns. In this study, we assess the costs of energy generation from major energy sources (firewood and dung) in rural Ethiopia, as well as the economic potential of biogas as an alternative in addressing both energy and food security challenges. Results show that households in rural areas largely collect their own fuel, with female household members being mainly responsible for the chore. By investing in biogas plants, households could save time and energy, and have a supply of slurry that can be used as fertilizer in agricultural production. A cost-benefit analysis of biogas plants yields positive net present values for households collecting their own energy sources. Even higher net present values are obtained for households purchasing all of their energy needs; these households stand to gain significantly from the financial benefits of energy cost savings with biogas technology. Results are highly dependent on slurry being effectively used as a source of fertilizer and on the price of the replaced energy source. Thus the promotion of slurry use as fertilizer must be an integral part of a successful biogas programme. Another important issue is that at present, biogas plants are highly subsidized and thus the above conditions hold under the assumptions of subsidies. When analysed without subsidies, indicators are still positive, yet amortisation periods are significantly longer and close to the depreciation point, so that investment risks increase.
... Biogas is an alternative energy resource in rural Ethiopia. It is considered a means of negating the disproportionate use of available traditional sources of firewood, cattle dung, agricultural residues, and charcoal [47,48]. There are two household-scale biogas digesters being promoted by the National Biogas Programme Ethiopia (NBPE) in the rural areas of the country, a 4 m 3 and a 6 m 3 model. ...
... Half of the time typically used for collecting fuelwood can be saved through biogas use [48], suggesting that households can save about 1 h per day of adult labor time with biogas; • The 4 m 3 and 6 m 3 biogas digester models can potentially replace up to 2208 kg and 3319 kg of firewood per year, respectively; • The 4 m 3 and 6 m 3 biogas digester models can potentially replace up to 6015 kg and 9021 kg of dung cake per year, respectively; • ...
... In this study, the cattle were the only focus. Haileslassie et al. [52] Cattle dung (kg): Diammoniumphosphate (DAP) (kg) 1 Gwavuya et al. [48] Note: a Tropical livestock units (TLUs) were estimated using a conversion factor of 0.79/head for cattle. ...
The introduction of modern bioenergy alternatives is promoted to address water-energy-food (WEF) security in the rural highlands of Ethiopia. While the role of women in WEF security is an essential component of these challenges, gender dimensions remain invisible in the nexus debate. This study explores the impact of gender-specific roles between female-and male-headed households on the nexus resources in the rural highlands of Ethiopia using an agent-based modeling approach. This includes capturing the gender-specific responses to modern bioenergy interventions to address current energy crises that may reduce or enhance synergies among nexus resources and whether the introduction of modern bioenergy technology would improve the quality of life for both men and women. Using the participatory gendered mental model of the food-energy-land nexus, a base ABM was developed to simulate the predicted effects under scenarios of population growth and labor reallocation. Initial simulation results show that there is low adoption of alternative bioenergy (i.e., biogas digesters), and the majority remain dependent on traditional energy sources (e.g., fuel wood and animal dung), suggesting further land degradation. Female-headed households that adopt biogas increase their burden of collecting water needed for the operation. Reallocation of labor from crop production to fuelwood collection would result in the reduction of crop yields. It is expected that male-headed households have better crop yields than female counterparts due to gender-specific roles. However, by shifting 10% of labor allocated from energy collection to crop production, yields (i.e., teff and wheat) produced by female-headed households would be comparable to their male counterparts, enhancing their food security. However, the reduced workloads for women resulting from the adoption of biogas digesters will not necessarily enhance their quality of life. This study suggests that trade-offs may arise between efficiency (in resource use) and social equity, which deserve to be further analyzed.
... Individual households judge pro tability of biogas plants primarily from monetary surplus gained from utilizing biogas and bio-fertilizer in relation to the cost of the plants. Economic cost-bene t analysis is the most e cient and widely used tools for measuring whether any investment would be bene cial or not, along with their environmental and social concern (Chakrabarty et al., 2013, Gwavuya et al., 2012). Limited success in promoting improved energy sources, such as biogas, in rural areas of developing countries has been partly blamed on insu cient understanding of household energy use patterns (Gwavuya et al., 2012). ...
... Economic cost-bene t analysis is the most e cient and widely used tools for measuring whether any investment would be bene cial or not, along with their environmental and social concern (Chakrabarty et al., 2013, Gwavuya et al., 2012). Limited success in promoting improved energy sources, such as biogas, in rural areas of developing countries has been partly blamed on insu cient understanding of household energy use patterns (Gwavuya et al., 2012). In studying the cost-bene t analysis and nancial viability of the biogas plant installation, incomes generated in terms of a monetary value encompass: expenditure saved due to the substitution of other energy sources with biogas, income generated from the sale of biogas (when applicable), replacing the cost of using chemical fertilizer by bio-slurry, income generated from the sale of bio-slurry (when applicable), time saved for collecting and preparing previously used fuel materials (when applicable), time saved for cooking after utilizing biogas energy (when this time can be used to generate income), improved indoor air quality and consequent reductions in medical expenditure for respiratory infections. ...
... In cost-bene t analysis, the result is always in uenced by several uncertainties. Sensitivity analysis helps to know how sensitive the NPV is to change in those uncertain factors (key variables) (Dıáz-Balteiro and Romero, 2004, Gwavuya et al., 2012). Therefore, sensitivity analysis was conducted to quantify the impact of change in key (selected) variables on the estimates of NPV to determine the nancial stability of household biogas investment in the study area. ...
Background: Installation of biogas plants has both costs and incomes; installation and maintenance service demand financial costs and reduction of costs for purchasing firewood, kerosene and chemical fertilizers are benefits or incomes. This study investigates the cost-benefit analysis and financial viability related to biogas plant installation in Southern Ethiopia.
Method: A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select sample households. A total of 105 adopter households were selected for household survey.
Results and conclusion: The installation cost took the largest share of the total cost of installation and was one of the main constraints that hindered installation. Installation increased household income by reducing the costs incurred for buying firewood, kerosene and chemical fertilizers. Relatively, lower plant size was more profitable than larger plant size. Installation under the subsidy scheme was more financially viable at 10 % discount rate than its counterparts. The profitability of lower plant size was more sensitive to changes in the discount rate, the level of expenditure saving and input price than larger plant size, under an assumption and without subsidy. Installation of low cost plants could more attract the engagement of a large number of rural households with low economic capacity. Besides, installation of lower plant sizes could more substantially enhance household income by saving costs incurred for buying firewood, kerosene and chemical fertilizers.
... However, the different cost analysis instruments, including CBA, are poorly equipped to account for environmental and health benefits when calculating the value of a program [e.g. Dawit [32], [7][8][9]. This discrepancy between objectives and evaluation metrics stems from the difficulty of monetizing the many benefits realized from clean energy approaches to RE in terms that can be incorporated directly into CBA. ...
... But it is not clear that existing project evaluation approaches are in a position to provide a robust assessment of whether these efforts are effective in economic terms. Previous studies in developing countries, including in Ethiopia, have primarily been focused on the evaluation of costs and benefits of energy alternatives (See, for example, Dawit [32]; Gwavuyaet al. [7]; Mengistu et al. [8,9]. Such traditional cost-benefit calculations generally do not include the accompanying environmental and health effects. ...
... The study, however, did not attempt to evaluate whether biogas programs have improved livelihoods in terms of job creation and income diversification, and it also did not consider its effect on the environment and health of women and children. The work of Gwavuya et al. [7] is another notable study in Ethiopia. They studied biogas cost and benefit in NPV compared to various traditional energy access methods (fuelwood purchaser, fuelwood collector, and dung collector). ...
Existing studies on evaluating rural energy programs in developing countries have primarily relied on cost-benefit analysis (CBA). CBA is based on measurements made on tangible and monetized aspects of costs and benefits and largely ignores the non-marketable, environmental, and health effects of alternative energy programs. Measuring non-marketed benefits have been identified as a limiting factor to apply cost-effectiveness analysis. In this study, we quantified environmental non-marketed benefits associated with alternative rural energy programs in Ethiopia. To measure the environmental effects, we considered the traditional cookstoves as a baseline energy package to which improved cookstoves (ICS) and biogas energy can be compared. We develop a simple linear growth model to capture forest regeneration to account for the environmental effect of ICS and biogas. The Environmental Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (ECEA) results show that biogas is not environmentally cost-effective compared with the ICS. Our analysis has considered a zero-subsidy scenario. Hence, it is essential to subsidize biogas programs to make them environmentally cost-effective. This study's findings can be used to compare the different energy interventions and signal the importance of using cost-effectiveness analysis over traditional CBA in the design and implementation of energy programs.
... With increased income, households' willingness to pay for a better quality of fuel and greater convenience of use increases (Rahut et al., 2016). Generally, households maximise their energy utility subject to constraints such as financial resources and budgets (Gwavuya et al., 2012). The variety of energy sources available to households carry an associated cost to the households and may lead to positive utility but also to disutility (Newman et al., 1996). ...
... The variety of energy sources available to households carry an associated cost to the households and may lead to positive utility but also to disutility (Newman et al., 1996). While lack of access to particular energy sources may significantly reduce household choices, there are other significant factors such as the shadow prices of energy sources determined by the economic value of alternative uses of the resources committed for energy generation (Gwavuya et al., 2012). As such, households have an option of which energy sources to use taking these factors into consideration. ...
... As such, households have an option of which energy sources to use taking these factors into consideration. The shadow price on households depends on the trade-off between household budget and time constraints (Gwavuya et al., 2012). ...
Despite increased global energy supply, many households have insufficient access to energy in developing countries. Power utility companies, mostly parastatals, fail to cope with the burgeoning energy demand. This results in load shedding and impacts strongly associated with people's socio-economic classification. With poorer residential areas disproportionately adversely affected, socio-spatial segregation across urban space is evident. Using the socio-spatial segregation framework, this study employed convergent parallel mixed methods to examine effects of load shedding on households in Kitwe. Research objectives were to (1) investigate how household SMEs were affected by load shedding (2) find out dominant energy mixes in the economically differentiated residential areas (3) establish if there are any theoretical implications of the effects of load shedding on the residential area categorisation. A questionnaire was administered to 510 low, middle and high-income residential area households. Data were analysed using content analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics. Results reveal similar socio-economic effects across all groups except household income for middle and high-income areas. Small businesses experienced reduced profits with increased business costs especially for high-income areas. In conclusion, socio-spatial segregation created little difference in social and economic impacts at household level implying reducing inequalities due to increasing informal sector activities.
... and ETB 4208.09/HH for 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 plants, respectively, after adoption. A previous study conducted in rural Ethiopia reported a similar finding that, the average amount of firewood saved by the biogas adopter households was 3319 kg/year [14] and was 1730.1 kg/year with the equivalent amount of money saved is ETB 1903.11/year [2] after adoption of the technology. ...
... Results are highly dependent on slurry being effectively used as a source of fertilizer and on the price of the replaced energy source. Thus, the promotion of slurry use as fertilizer must be an integral part of a successful biogas program in Ethiopia [14]. ...
... The biogas investment without subsidy in both 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 plants are less viable than of biogas investment with subsidy (Table 8). This result is in line with Gwavuya et al. [14] that the small sizes of biogas plant in Ethiopia were more profitable than the large sizes. Kabir et al. [17] showed that under assumption with subsidy, biogas users in Bangladesh obtain better financial results compared to assumption without subsidy. ...
Biogas technology, which converts biological waste into energy, is considered as an excellent tool to improve the lives, livelihoods, health, ecosystem and economy. In Ethiopia, biogas technology has been domesticated to improve the rural energy security and household's income by reducing their dependence on traditional biomass energy and chemical fertilizers. The profitability of biogas installation is rendered doubtful despite its numerous benefits and domestication efforts. Hence, this study aimed at evaluating the cost-benefit analysis and Profitability of biogas technology at household level in West Hararghe zone, Eastern Ethiopia. By using multistage sampling technique, cross-sectional data were collected from 105 systematically selected adopter households. The costs incurred and the benefits gained were analyzed using paired t-test. Payback Period (PBP), benefit cost ratio (BCR) and Net Present Value (NPV) were analyzed using different economic formula. The results indicated the most commonly domesticated plant is fixed dome biogas with volumes of 6 m 3 and 8 m 3. Investing 6 m 3 biogas plant with subsidy (0.73 year) had short PBP than the 8 m 3 plant (0.97 year). This implies, subsidy has been attracting households into biogas adoption. The BCR under assumption with subsidy was found to be 1.34 and 1.10 at 10% discount rate for 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 plants, respectively. Under both assumptions with and without subsidy, the NPV results for 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 biogas plant sizes turn out positive. In general, the results of PBP, BCR and NPV shown that the biogas investment is preferable and profitable for continuing the investment for the future.
... and ETB 4208.09/HH for 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 plants, respectively, after adoption. A previous study conducted in rural Ethiopia reported a similar finding that, the average amount of firewood saved by the biogas adopter households was 3319 kg/year (Gwavuya et al., 2012) and was 1730.1 kg/year with the equivalent amount of money saved is ETB 1903.11/year (Alemneh, 2011) after adoption of the technology. ...
... Results are highly dependent on slurry being effectively used as a source of fertilizer and on the price of the replaced energy source. Thus, the promotion of slurry use as fertilizer must be an integral part of a successful biogas program in Ethiopia (Gwavuya et al., 2012). Note: ***represents1% level of significance ...
... The biogas investment without subsidy in both 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 plants are less viable than of biogas investment with subsidy (Table 8). This result is in line with Gwavuya et al. (2012) that the small sizes of biogas plant in Ethiopia were more profitable than the large sizes. Kabir et al. (2012) showed that under assumption with subsidy, biogas users in Bangladesh obtain better financial results compared to assumption without subsidy. ...
Biogas technology, which converts biological waste into energy, is considered as an excellent tool to improve the lives, livelihoods, health, ecosystem and economy. In Ethiopia, biogas technology has been domesticated to improve the rural energy security and household’s income by reducing their dependence on traditional biomass energy and chemical fertilizers. The profitability of biogas installation is rendered doubtful despite its numerous benefits and domestication efforts. Hence, this study aimed at evaluating the cost-benefit analysis and Profitability of biogas technology at household level in West Hararghe zone, Eastern Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select sample households. A total of 105 biogas adopter households were selected for household survey. Results indicated the most commonly domesticated plant is fixed dome biogas with volumes of 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 . Investing 6 m 3 biogas plant with subsidy (0.73 year) had short payback period (PBP) than the 8 m 3 plant (0.97 year). This implies, subsidy has been attracting households into biogas adoption. The benefit cost ratio (BCR) under assumption with subsidy was found to be 1.34 and 1.10 at 10% discount rate for 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 plants, respectively. Under both assumptions with and without subsidy, the NPV results for 6 m 3 and 8 m 3 biogas plant sizes turn out positive. In general, the results of PBP, BCR and NPV shown that the biogas investment is preferable and profitable for continuing the investment for the future.
... Biogas is an alternative energy resource in rural Ethiopia. It is considered a means of negating the disproportionate use of available traditional sources of firewood, cattle dung, agricultural residues, and charcoal [47,48]. There are two household-scale biogas digesters being promoted by the National Biogas Programme Ethiopia (NBPE) in the rural areas of the country, a 4 m 3 and a 6 m 3 model. ...
... Half of the time typically used for collecting fuelwood can be saved through biogas use [48], suggesting that households can save about 1 h per day of adult labor time with biogas; • The 4 m 3 and 6 m 3 biogas digester models can potentially replace up to 2208 kg and 3319 kg of firewood per year, respectively; • The 4 m 3 and 6 m 3 biogas digester models can potentially replace up to 6015 kg and 9021 kg of dung cake per year, respectively; • ...
... In this study, the cattle were the only focus. Haileslassie et al. [52] Cattle dung (kg): Diammoniumphosphate (DAP) (kg) 1 Gwavuya et al. [48] Note: a Tropical livestock units (TLUs) were estimated using a conversion factor of 0.79/head for cattle. ...
... (Zeissig and William, 2011) The other Sub-Saharan countries show more or less the same behaviour as Kenya. (Gwavuya et al., 2012) Even though a major part of the rural area settlements is concentrated in Africa continent, still other continents host a remarkable number of rural inhabitants. As the main focus of this study is to discuss the solutions to provide energy for cooking in rural areas, the current situation of clean cooking and biomass use has to be understood well. ...
... As noted by Gwavuya et al. (2012), in rural Ethiopia, people are collecting their own energy source from the environment. The use of biogas plan in the rural areas resulted a positive net present value (NPV) as the time spent for creating economic value instead of collecting wood. ...
... According to the labour costs the income could be earned during the collection time. (Gwavuya et al., 2012) Also, the price of the materials can be evaluated depending on the alternative use of the materials Kanagawa and Nakata (2007) calculates the cost of energy source in their research paper with the given formula: ...
This review study is done to evaluate the current state of knowledge in micro biogas solutions and give an overview to the reader to understand the dynamics of design and application of micro biogas solutions in rural areas. Within this study, countries holding a dense rural population are assessed in detail to evaluate the situation. Available studies and surveys are reviewed in the literature and discussed. In addition, various designs around the world are assessed techno-economically that fits the requirements of rural biogas solutions for sustainability. The study focused on providing an energy source with simple, cost-efficient and sustainable design considerations. The primary goal of the research is to investigate the applicability and effectivity of micro biogas solutions to provide biogas for cooking purpose and lighting. The current situation shows that rural households mostly depend on woody biomass for their energy needs. Therefore, the economic and environmental aspects of consumption behaviour are also discussed. Results show that micro biogas solutions can provide a good match for the rural population to meet their energy requirements under the supervision of institutions and subsidy support of government and NGOs.
... In recent years, various environmental impact analyses have shown that the use of biogas to produce heat [6], generate electricity [7], or serve as vehicle fuel [8] generates lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to the use of conventional fuels. The magnitude of GHG mitigation depends on several factors, such as: the origin of the raw material and the distance to transport it, the source of the energy resources consumed in the system, biogas utilization pathway and infrastructure, and the management of the waste generated in the process [9]. ...
... The generation of biogas from nopal as a heat source on a farmscale under Mexico's conditions is not economically viable, due to the cost incurred in the production of the biomass and the low national price of the substituted energy. Even in some family-scale studies, where biomass sources are farm animal waste, crop residues or food waste, economic viability is dependent on the presence of investment subsidies [7] and low-cost raw material sources [39]. ...
... The digestate, in addition to mitigating GHG emissions, contributed about 40% of the total economic benefits. However, as indicated by the sensitivity analysis and as reported by other studies [7], economic feasibility is heavily dependent on the use of the digestate as a fertilizer, so proper valuation is a crucial factor. This study based the digestate value on its nutritional content (N-P-K); however, different studies have shown that the digestate also has the potential to improve the physical and biological quality of the soil [56], facilitate the absorption of macro and micro nutrients [57], and increase the organic matter content of soils [58]. ...
Anaerobic digestion of agricultural biomass is recognized as a good option for generating affordable and environmentally sustainable renewable energy. This study evaluated the economic feasibility of biogas production through nopal-manure co-digestion on a farm-scale under Mexican conditions. Three utilization pathways were analyzed: biogas production, electricity production and methane production. The potential for greenhouse gas mitigation and digestate utilization were included in the total benefits. Electricity production had the greatest potential for greenhouse gas mitigation, reducing 0.334 kg of CO 2 -eq per MJ of electricity generated, whereas the results for biogas and biomethane production were much lower (0.057 and 0.058 kgCO 2 -eq·per MJ respectively). The financial analysis showed that biogas production does not recoup the initial investment layout. Electricity and biomethane production had an Internal Rate of Return of 7.5% and 7.2% respectively. The value of displaced energy and digestate are the factors that contribute most to profitability, while the market value of mitigation is negligible. The challenges to improving profitability are: reducing biomass production costs, properly valorizing the digestate, improving carbon credits and promoting the production and use of bioenergies on a farm-scale level.
... Many researchers concluded that floating type digester is the most expensive while bag type digester is the cheapest. The cost-benefit analysis done by [27] also shows that fixe dome-type digester has a positive net present value as compared to other types of digesters and the life span for floating type digester is also short due to the floater steel drum easily corrodes and fails to work. ...
... Since the national biogas program implementation, the majority of adopted biogas digester sizes are ranging from 4 to 10 m3 out of which 75% are 8m3 fixed dome digester [9] and 90% of the sampled biogas plants were with 6 m3 of gas volume where almost all biogas plants are fixed dome type biogas plants [6]. The number of cattle that the household owns is a decisive factor for the selection of digester size and out of the total costs, the NBPE pays a subsidy of 36 % per plant and what remains, amounting to 64% is paid for by the farmer [27]and [6] had also stated that the financing of biogas technology adoption, half of the price is 13 subsidized by the federal government (10%), the regional government (5%), and the rest of the payment is funded by the Africa Biogas Partnership ...
Ethiopia is a country with less access to electricity, for which biomass is commonly used as a major source of energy for cooking, heating, and kerosene for lighting in rural areas.
... About 95% of the Ethiopian population rely on traditional biomass fuels for cooking (Sanbata et al., 2014). Gwavuya et al. (2012) reported that firewood holds the greatest share of energy sources for cooking in rural Ethiopia. Besides, kerosene was mainly used for lighting. ...
... The reduced workload from women and children in association with firewood or cow dung collection and the availability of clean household energy lead to social and economic development (Garfí et al., 2012). Domestic biogas energy reduces the workload of women by reducing the need to collect firewood, tend fires and clean soot from cooking utensils (Amare, 2015;Eshete et al., 2006;Gwavuya et al., 2012). ...
he depletion of bioenergy sources has caused significant deforestation, low agricultural production, and energy crisis. This study evaluates factors associated with biogas technology adoption and the amount of biomass fuels, kerosene, and chemical fertilizer that can be replaced or saved upon adoption by rural households. Questionnaire household survey, key informant interview, focus group discussion and field obervation were used for data collection. Biogas technology adoption reduced the use of firewood, charcoal, dung cake, and kerosene consumption by 58%, 36%, 71%, and 74%, respectively. It also reduced the use of chemical fertilizer by 94% and the combined use of chemical fertilizer and manure by 91%. Adoption turned the majority of households (65.4%) to use a combination of bio-slurry and chemical fertilizer as well. It helped the majority (89.95%) of adopters to construct and connect toilets to biogas operational system. In doing so, the adoption reduced defecation in the field and improved environmental sanitation and human health. It further enabled saving of about 38% of adopters’ time, which otherwise would be expended for firewood and dung collection. It similarly enhanced adopters’ income through decreasing expenses for chemical fertilizer, kerosene, and other fuel sources. Biogas technology has huge potential of replacing traditional fuel sources for domestic consumption, and of reducing the consumption of kerosene and chemical fertilizers as well as of increasing income and decreasing labor for biofuel collection. The adoption of biogas technology could also reduce deforestation rate, improve agricultural production and improve energy supply of rural households.
... Biogas technology is considered a promising strategy for supplying the increasing demand for energy at the household level [1,2]. In less developed regions, the main benefits of biogas technology have been linked to its ability to replace currently used traditional sources of energy such as firewood or dried dung that are usually connected with environmental and/or health challenges [3,4] as well as more advanced alternatives such as LPG, diesel or electricity that may put under pressure household expenses and rise uncertainty because of supplies fluctuations, and with the improvement of living standard of households in terms of the health situation, waste management or cash balance [5]. ...
... Besides government support, an additional important factor supporting the rapid and smooth implementation of biogas technology in Vietnam is the significantly lower investment costs of biogas plant installation than in other countries worldwide [13]. On the other hand, there is still a lack of scientific data on biogas technology benefits and sustainability from Vietnam compared to other South-Eastern Asian countries such as Nepal [14], China [15] or Laos [16], or other developing countries around the world, such as India [17] or Ethiopia [1]. ...
The implementation of biogas plants in Southeast Asia brings many benefits to the households through socio-economic, environmental and health improvements. This paper expands the knowledge on essential aspects of biogas implementation such as socio-economic impact, post-adaptation perception and cultural habits related to traditional fuel use, focusing on differences in household economics and livelihood diversity at the peri-urban–rural continuum. A questionnaire survey was conducted from July to September in Thua Thien Hue Province central Vietnam, among rural (n=55) and peri-urban (n=63) households owning a biogas plant of various ages. Our results show that technical problems with biogas plants were influenced by the age of the biogas plant and the owners’ experience with the management of the plant. The reduction of costs on energy was the main reason for households to install a biogas plant. However, households with biogas plants in the rural area experienced lower profitability and an almost two-times longer pay-back period than those situated near cities (internal rate of return equals 20.20% and 48.16%, respectively). Furthermore, our study shows that biogas plant installation reduces firewood consumption, particularly in peri-urban areas. The saved time initially needed for dung management or firewood collection/management, households members used predominantly for leisure and household chores, less on income-generating activities. Our study concludes that rural areas face operational problems more frequently, which, together with lower economic efficiency, negatively affect the successful implementation of biogas plants in remote areas of central Vietnam.
... Rural renewable energy supply is crucial for rural development, worldwide and even more so in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Barbier 2020), where more than 80% of households still burn solid biofuels for cooking and heating (World Bank 2011) and electrification lags significantly far behind other regions of the globe (Dahunsi et al. 2020). In other regions, the supply of electricity and other modern energy sources has been shown to increase rural income and overall well-being (Barbier 2020; Shan et al. 2016), as well as reduce the strain on rural labor systems, in particular for collecting energy sources like firewood or dung (Gwavuya et al. 2012), and allow labor to be allocated more productively (Dinkelman 2011;Narula and Bhattacharyya 2017). Moreover, increasing energy efficiency and reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels or primary biomass energy carriers (wood, charcoal, dung, or agricultural residues) using improved biomass technologies (e.g., stoves) would also improve health conditions, particularly for women and children, by avoiding respiratory diseases from exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollutants (Gwavuya et al. 2012;Hanif 2018;Sulaiman et al. 2020;Tucho and Nonhebel 2015). ...
... In other regions, the supply of electricity and other modern energy sources has been shown to increase rural income and overall well-being (Barbier 2020; Shan et al. 2016), as well as reduce the strain on rural labor systems, in particular for collecting energy sources like firewood or dung (Gwavuya et al. 2012), and allow labor to be allocated more productively (Dinkelman 2011;Narula and Bhattacharyya 2017). Moreover, increasing energy efficiency and reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels or primary biomass energy carriers (wood, charcoal, dung, or agricultural residues) using improved biomass technologies (e.g., stoves) would also improve health conditions, particularly for women and children, by avoiding respiratory diseases from exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollutants (Gwavuya et al. 2012;Hanif 2018;Sulaiman et al. 2020;Tucho and Nonhebel 2015). While some authors (e.g., Hanif 2018;Mulugetta 2008) see the persistent use of biomass resources as energy sources critical and suggest a focus on other renewable energy sources, others (e.g., Berhanu et al. 2017;Tucho and Nonhebel 2015) highlight the high potential of the same, in particular biomass-based energy as affordable energy sources in rural areas, where poverty is an obstacle to purchasing electrical equipment. ...
Production of value-added outputs from biomass residues represents an opportunity to increase the supply of renewable energy in Ethiopia. Particularly, agroforestry could provide biomass residues for improved bioenergy products. The aim of this study was to characterize the interest of growers to provide biomass residues to a hypothetical biomass feedstock market. This study relied on a survey conducted on a sample of 240 farmers. Although the awareness of potential biomass products was generally quite low, a majority of farmers expressed interest in supplying biomass residues, but the level of interest depended on certain individual socio-economic and demographic characteristics. For example, younger and female household heads were found to be more interested in participating in the hypothetical biomass market, as were households with an improved biomass stove, larger land holdings, and higher income levels. In addition, larger households and those that felt less vulnerable to firewood scarcity also expressed more interest. As a whole, the results imply that farmers, particularly those with younger and female heads of households, should be supported with programs tailored to ensure their inclusion in biomass supply chains. Respondents generally preferred farm-gate sales of biomass, so the collecting, baling, and transporting of woody residues need to be properly incentivized or new actors need to be recruited into the supply chain. Providing households with energy-efficient tools such as improved stoves would not only increase demand for biomass products, but also increase the amount of biomass residues that could be supplied to the market instead of used at home.
... Biogas digesters are currently being used for cooking and lighting in many developing countries, and can provide an alternative source of energy from the traditional use of fuelwood (Hessen, 2014;Mengistu et al., 2015;Roopnarain and Adeleke, 2017). Some studies have demonstrated that biogas technology can save time and energy at the household level while providing a bio-slurry that can be used to improve agricultural production (Gwavuya et al., 2012;Smith et al., 2014). Biogas has also been reported to relieve health risks while providing environmental, agricultural, economic, and social benefits (Katuwal and Bohara, 2009). ...
... In sub-Saharan Africa, a number of studies have been conducted on different aspects of biogas technologies. These include studies on socioeconomic constraints which affect biogas adoption (Mwirigi et al., 2014); the economic feasibility of biogas installation (Gwavuya et al., 2012;Walekhwa et al., 2014); the technical efficiencies of biogas appliances (Tumwesige et al., 2014); the potential of bio-slurry for a soil fertility and crop production ; and the environmental impacts of biogas using life cycle assessment method (Lansche and Muller, 2017;Shane and Gheewala, 2017). Mengistu et al. (2015) reviewed the status of biogas technology, factors influencing the dissemination of the technology, energy resources and consumption patterns, benefits of biogas technology at the global scale, and a brief account of biogas use and access in Ethiopia. ...
In developing countries, fuelwood extraction is one of the main drivers of deforestation, forest degradation, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study aimed to investigate the use, management, and attitudes towards biogas technology in rural communities in Ethiopia and assess its’ potential in reducing the consumption of biomass fuels and emissions of GHG. A questionnaire survey sampled from 40 biogas user and 40 non-user households was used to collect data. The biogas flow rate was measured using a gas flow meter from three random biogas digesters. Biogas and non-biogas user households reported similar socioeconomic perspectives. Our results showed that 92.5% of biogas user households and 77.5% of non-users had a positive attitude towards biogas technology, however, 52.5% of the non-users lacked information about the technology while 25% of the non-users were deterred by biogas installation costs. The average biogas consumption of each household was from 496 to 566 m3 yr−1 for cooking and from 106 to 124 m3 yr−1 for lighting. Biogas user households consumed fuelwood and crop residue to the same extent as non-user households for baking foods. However, biogas user households differed significantly from non-user households in biomass fuel use for non-baked foods owing to the suitability of biogas stoves. Each biogas user household reduced their fuelwood and charcoal use by about 2410 kg yr−1 and 379 kg yr−1, respectively, and decreased their kerosene use (for lighting) by about 9.5 L yr−1. The GHGs emitted by each household was estimated at 10,242 kg CO2e yr−1 and 16,266 kg CO2e yr−1 for biogas user and non-user households, respectively. Thus, each household with a biogas digester has the potential to reduce 6024 kg CO2e yr−1 of GHG emission. Biogas energy can offer an opportunity to mitigate GHGs emissions through reduced pressure on forests. Its’ contribution can more than double by improving the biogas stove design to fit the traditional baked foods.
... In cabinet that can be in sunlight for at least part of the day 33/51 (65) In cabinet that is never in the sunlight 18/51 (35) 4) Hygiene and management of the store Store owners has pigs on their own farm 31/81 (38) Floor of the store get wet 6/81 (7) Floor looks like it has been swept recently 28/81 (35) Having fecal material in front of the store 23/81 (28) Loose or spilled feed ingredients on the floor 39 ...
... Low use of manure to fertilize the crops in the present study is in agreement with the previous findings. Biogas is economically viable and sustainable for rural household and as well as safe for resources and provide fertilizer [39]. Cambodian farmers normally used pig manure to make gas used in household for cooking and lighting. ...
Biosecurity measures are essential for protecting pig health, however, these practices are not always utilized by smallholder farmers in Cambodia. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and practices, in terms of pig biosecurity measures, of individual stakeholders involved in pig production in rural and peri-urban households in Cambodia. A survey tool was developed and administered
using Kobotoolbox, an online electronic survey tool. Surveys were
conducted in the provinces of Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, and Battambang during December 2017 to September 2018. There were 225 pig farmers, 43 village animal health workers (VAHWs), 3-district veterinarians (DVs), and 81 feed store owners enrolled in the study. Results showed that several biosecurity guidelines are not followed or well understood by farmers. Specific concerning practices included using natural boars, sharing pig equipment (e.g. scales), feeding kitchen waste, managing other livestock, handling manure, and not restricting access by visitors (VAHWs or DVs, boar owners, pig buyers,
neighbors, and meat sellers). Thus, education of pig smallholder farmers and VAHWs on pig biosecurity is needed for improving pig health and production, economic value, and livelihood of smallholder farmers in Cambodia.
... In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the access to energy systems is difficult, despite the presence of several reserves of petroleum, natural gas, and coal. This causes high consumption of virgin wood and charcoal, as the principal sources of energy, with negative implications for the environment (deforestation and greenhouse gases-GHGs emission) and human health (respiratory infections), particularly in rural areas [12]. The main victims of these risks are the women and children who generally do the cooking and harvesting of biomasses [13]. ...
... The main victims of these risks are the women and children who generally do the cooking and harvesting of biomasses [13]. In this context, anaerobic digestion (AD) can play a central role in reducing conflicts between energy combustion and environmental conservation, adopting low-tech technologies [12][13][14][15][16]. In order to optimize the production of biogas and, at the same time, the methane content, it is now common to use the so-called energy crops for anaerobic digestion. ...
Moringa oleifera Lam. (moringa) is a typical plant of tropical climates used as food, feed, and natural medication. This plant, rich in oil, could be valorized in the bioenergy sector, as infeed to produce biofuel, useful to save fossil sources, and to limit GHG emissions. This paper has evaluated its potential methane production by the anaerobic digestion process, in comparison to corn and giant cane, two typical food and non-food energy crops. Biogas production has been correlated to the content of fats, waxes, resins, cellulose, hemicellulose, proteins, and lignin in the three plants and to the different carbon types detected by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. Chemical and spectroscopic analysis showed that organic matter of moringa contains more than 40% of fats having high potential to produce biogas. Although the quantity of biogas produced from corn was higher, among the three samples, the content in methane for corn and moringa was not statistically different. In particular, the methane yields for the giant cane, moringa, and corn were 363 ± 11, 442 ± 9, and 452 ± 12 m³ Mg DM⁻¹ respectively: moringa produced less biogas but it was richer in methane. Methane concentration was positively correlated to the sum of fats, waxes, resins, hemicellulose, and proteins (R² = 0.97; n = 3; p < 0.05). All these results seem to indicate that effectively moringa can be used as substrate to produce biogas by anaerobic digestion. When combined with small-scale low-tech digesters, this can represent a good opportunity for bioenergy production in developing countries.
... Cost is another concern that consumers have regarding new technology or innovation; it does not only include the initial investment cost but the maintenance cost, as well as the opportunity cost of time [48]. Prior studies have indicated the inhibiting influence of cost of biogas technology on technology adoption [49][50][51]. Consequently, we hypothesize the following: ...
... A strong preference exists among the studied households in rural Pakistan for biogas technology for cooking based on the perception that the technology is more convenient and efficient in comparison with less efficient biomass technology alternatives. The result supports the findings of previous studies done in different countries, including Pakistan [5,41,49,67,68]. The perception of households that it is easy to operate biogas digesters is another driving factor in their motivation towards deciding to adopt the technology. ...
A high level of acceptance and adoption is necessary to facilitate the widespread utilization of renewable energy technologies for cooking, as such utilization is essential for displacing the population’s massive dependence on fossil fuels and solid biomass. Economic and demographic aspects have been the focus of recent literature in exploring the adoption phenomenon of biogas technology. However, literature to date has given little attention to the behavioral factors and the perceptions of the end-users. Our study does not only include behavioral factors, but it employs a hybrid model to explore the continued attentions of users based on their post-adoption beliefs and performance expectations. Using a survey conducted in Pakistan in 2017, the study conducts a multivariate analysis through structural equation modeling to measure the effect of pre- and post-adoption beliefs and expectation on adoption and the continuing intention of households towards biogas technology. Results show that the acceptance of the households towards biogas technology is highly influenced by their perceptions on the benefits, as well as their trust in the technology. The perceived cost and risk attached to the technology are found to be negatively correlated with the acceptance. Households’ intentions to continue the use of biogas technology is highly influenced by the satisfaction level of the users of biogas technology. With the integrated model of adoption and continuation, the study illustrates the dynamic process in obtaining a deeper understanding of a user’s behavior to better formulate the policies for increasing the rate of technology adoption.
... Therefore, access to credit can help them to cover the initial expense of a solar PV system in meantime. The (Gwavuya et al., 2012;Mengistu et al., 2016) findings are somehow identical to our studies, the results show a positive association between the access to credit and the adoption of RETs. ...
The electricity crisis in Pakistan has been triggering grid power outages (load shedding) for many decades, which has not only affected the commercial and industrial sectors but also the domestic sector, specifically the livelihood of rural areas of the country. However, the extant literature advocates that renewable energy technologies (RETs), such as solar photovoltaic (PV) can be the remedy. Given the abundant availability of solar energy in Pakistan that can be converted into electrical energy using a solar PV system, this study examines the determinants of solar PV adoption in rural areas of Pakistan. Our preliminary investigations-using government/official publications-indicate that despite the huge potential of solar energy in Pakistan, the usage of solar PV systems at the household level in rural areas is still untapped, which makes this research agenda more appealing and provocative. In doing so, this study first conducts surveys, face-to-face comprehensive interviews, and questionnaires in four different districts of Pakistan and then implements a stepwise two-stage novel approach on a sample of 1,140 selected rural households. The first stage focuses on the determinants of solar PV system adoption, whereas the second stage focuses on the determinants of the type of solar PV system adopted. Using logistic regression, this study finds that age, education, children in school, income level, access to credit, gender (female), and price of a solar PV system are the factors significantly affecting the solar PV system adoption. In the second stage, we use a multivariate probit model and find that among these significant factors, the former five are significantly positive for the uptake of solar home-system, whereas the latter two are significant for both solar shed-lighting and solar panel-kit systems. In addition to these factors, landholding and access-to-road are significant for solar home systems, whereas household size, distance-to-market, and access-to-grid-electricity are significant for both solar shed-lighting and solar panel-kit systems. Since burning fossil fuels and solid biomass fuels for domestic energy needs are common in rural areas globally and cause carbon emissions and several severe health issues, the findings of this study are useful in many ways. In specific, we contribute to the literature examining the determinants of RETs in rural communities in developing countries.
... Such result could be due to the existing government subsidies for domestic biogas digester installations. Gwavuya et al. (2012) reported that he government of Ethiopia, SNV2, and other organizations provide subsidy up to 40% of the total construction cost of a biogas digester to increase biogas adoption. Study in Bangladesh revealed that biogas clients would be burdened by investment costs, while subsidies and credit played a critical part in making the decision to adopt a biogas plant (Kabir et al., 2012). ...
Biogas as a clean source of cooking fuel has enormous potential to meet Bangladesh's energy needs. The objective of this article is to identify the factors influence biogas adoption in rural households. The study aimed to look at the policy framework that needs to be put in place to promote biogas adoption as a cooking fuel in the study region. This study collected primary data by interviewing 118 respondents with a structured questionnaire (78 biogas users and 40 non-users) during July-August 2021. Respondents were women who cook for their families regularly. This paper based on a cross-sectional analysis of nine socio-economic and demographic parameters that may influence biogas uptake in Western Bangladesh. The dependent variable, biogas cooking fuel adoption status, was modeled as a dichotomous variable. To evaluate the relationship between independent variables with the dependent variable (biogas user and no-user), bivariate descriptive analysis (t-test for continuous data and chi-square test for categorical data) was performed. Then, a binary regression model was chosen to determine the adjusted effect of independent variables on biogas adoption decisions. The study found that the demographic factors such as income status of the women, education of household head, family size and total family income significantly and positively influence biogas adoption decisions. Contrary to the hypothesis, access to internet and total land area owned by the family show negative relation with biogas cooking fuel adoption status of the household. The outcome of this research added evidence to support energy policy with giving emphasis on subsidy, and adult education in rural areas. SAARC J. Agric., 20(2): 261-272 (2022)
... HOMER program is used to determine the optimum system size based on the lowest cost of energy production [17]- [19]. Relying on the lowest cost may not be accurate throughout the operating period due to variations in prices of fuel and system components [20]- [22]. This paper aims to study providing electrical power to the selected site in Egypt through a photovoltaic (PV)/Biogas system with diesel generator as a backup source and without storage element [23]- [26]. ...
There are methods of supplying the required energy to the load while reducing the cost relatively, but do not take into account the amount of reserved energy; this is not preferred if batteries are not used to store the excess energy produced. The proposed method is a mathematical model to calculate the system size for supplying a load in an area far from the electrical grid where there are huge sources of biomass energy and high rates of solar radiation. The system includes three energy sources to generate electrical energy from solar energy, biogas in addition to a diesel generator supplying a specific load without batteries. The proposed model provides a solution that achieves an optimized system design while minimizing reserved energy taking into account minimizing the cost. The method assumes that the load is supplied first from the solar generator, when the load gets higher, the biogas generator is introduced, and the diesel generator works only if the load exceeds the capacity of the renewable sources. This scenario depends on increasing the contribution of renewable resources compared to fossil fuel.
... Therefore, access to credit can help them to cover the initial expense of a solar PV system in meantime. The (Gwavuya et al., 2012;Mengistu et al., 2016) findings are somehow identical to our studies, the results show a positive association between the access to credit and the adoption of RETs. ...
The electricity crisis in Pakistan has been triggering grid power outages (load shedding) for many decades, which has not only affected the commercial and industrial sectors but also the domestic sector, specifically the livelihood of rural areas of the country. However, the extant literature advocates that renewable energy technologies (RETs), such as solar photovoltaic (PV) can be the remedy. Given the abundant availability of solar energy in Pakistan that can be converted into electrical energy using a solar PV system, this study examines the determinants of solar PV adoption in rural areas of Pakistan. Our preliminary investigations-using government/official publications-indicate that despite the huge potential of solar energy in Pakistan, the usage of solar PV systems at the household level in rural areas is still untapped, which makes this research agenda more appealing and provocative. In doing so, this study first conducts surveys, face-to-face comprehensive interviews, and questionnaires in four different districts of Pakistan and then implements a stepwise two-stage novel approach on a sample of 1,140 selected rural households. The first stage focuses on the determinants of solar PV system adoption, whereas the second stage focuses on the determinants of the type of solar PV system adopted. Using logistic regression, this study finds that age, education, children in school, income level, access to credit, gender (female), and price of a solar PV system are the factors significantly affecting the solar PV system adoption. In the second stage, we use a multivariate probit model and find that among these significant factors, the former five are significantly positive for the uptake of solar home-system, whereas the latter two are significant for both solar shed-lighting and solar panel-kit systems. In addition to these factors, landholding and access-to-road are significant for solar home systems, whereas household size, distance-to-market, and access-to-grid-electricity are significant for both solar shed-lighting and solar panel-kit systems. Since burning fossil fuels and solid biomass fuels for domestic energy needs are common in rural areas globally and cause carbon emissions and several severe health issues, the findings of this study are useful in many ways. In specific, we contribute to the literature examining the determinants of RETs in rural communities in developing countries.
... A database system containing important information and data on biogas technology and feedstock such as agricultural residues and their biogas potential can serve as a one stop source of information for donor agencies, policy makers, consumers, local population as well as the academia. [22] . ...
Research into biogas production and sustainability in Kenya is in progress at Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) through its biogas laboratory. Biogas production is one of the renewable energies which we use in Kenya. Biogas importance, development, opportunities and the economical and sustainability in Kenya are discussed. The full exploitation of Kenya 's agricultural potential will yield a lot of biomass through which innovative use of the available bio waste from maize, cotton, tea and sugarcane can be utilized. Present and emerging biogas technologies convert these biowaste into renewable energy, thereby replacing the expensive fossil energy sources, and reducing dependency on fossil fuels. Other substrates like water hyacinth and molasses distillery waste have been found to be a good source of biogas. This review examines the energy potential of biogas production from crop residues. The findings will promote biogas addition to the energy mix Kenya needs as well as providing approaches, achievements, lessons learnt and other relevant aspects of domestic biogas programmers. It aims to achieve a greater, more effective use of biogas and contributes to the process by providing knowledge of biogas use in Kenya and its potential. Development partners are supporting the implementation of market-based domestic biogas programmers in Kenya with a view to establish a commercially viable biogas sector.
... They considered several impact indicators, such as net present value, payback period, benefit-cost ratio, and woman's opportunity costs. Other studies reporting on the economic performance of biogas production in African countries include South Africa (Amigun and Von Blottnitz, 2010), Ethiopia (Gwavuya et al., 2012), Tanzania (Laramee and Davis, 2013), and Uganda (Walekhwa et al., 2014). Ali et al. (2020) emphasise a lack of comprehensive economic assessment of biogas digesters in African countries. ...
This study employed a life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) to compare the biomethane with biohydrogen produced from organic waste streams in various African settings, such as agro-industrial, urban, and rural settings. It also used biomethane and biohydrogen in cogeneration unit systems to generate electricity, and as a transportation fuel for motor vehicles. In the agro-industrial setting, applying biohydrogen in the electricity generation system records a higher sustainability performance compared to the vehicles' operation. The electricity generation system records a sustainability performance index (SPI) value of 2.20; the vehicles' operation records a value of 1.15. In urban settings, applying biohydrogen in the vehicles' operation records higher sustainability performance outcomes compared to the electricity generation system, which recorded SPI values of 1.95 and 1.80, respectively. In rural settings, applying biohydrogen in the vehicle operation records higher sustainability performance outcomes compared to the electricity generation system, which recorded SPI values of 1.55 and 0.80, respectively. Agro-industrial settings are well suited for biohydrogen production. There is no compelling case for admitting biohydrogen technology in both urban and rural settings. Biomethane technology remains an all-round preferred technology due to higher production rates, whilst yielding, compared to the biohydrogen technology. Biomethane infrastructural development could be a precursor for biohydrogen technology installation.
... While the total land area of cultivation in the highlands of Ethiopia was 20,796,518 ha, the initial SOC stocks of 62% of this land were relatively low, ranging from 51 t ha −1 in warm semiarid-arid to 81 t ha −1 in tepid moist zone. This low rate of C stock is due to use of over 80% of crop residues and cattle dung for household energy in the highlands of Ethiopia at the expense of crop residue and manure application to farmlands (Gudina & Nonhebel, 2015;Gwavuya et al., 2012;Negash et al., 2017). From these results, we concluded that the business-as-usual system should not continue. ...
The objectives of this study across the highlands of Ethiopia were: (i) to characterize the association between soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and biophysical variables and (ii) to model and map attainable SOC sequestration associated with five improved land management practices. The spatial distribution of the SOC stock was studied using a multiple linear regression model driven by eight biophysical predictors. A widely used SOC model (RothC) was then used to model changes in SOC over the next 20–50 years of improved land management. Simulations were driven by the derived SOC stocks, pH and clay contents that are available in the ISRIC soils database at 250 m resolution and climate data from the “Enhancing National Climate Services Initiative” database. Organic carbon inputs to the model were estimated from the “Improved Crop Varieties Yield Register” of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resource and the Central Statistics Authority. After 50 years of conservation tillage with 80% of available manure applied to cultivated land, the total SOC stock increased by 169,182,174 t, which is 2.8 times higher than the stock increase with only 50% of available manure applied. Introduction of improved pasture species and measures to control soil erosion was an important source of net carbon sequestration in grasslands. Afforestation and reforestation of degraded landscapes and protection of natural ecosystems further increased soil carbon. This highlights the importance of improved land management practices to SOC sequestration, which in turn could enhance agricultural productivity, food security and sustainable development.
... It is also observed that without subsidies the investment in biogas utilization will be a risk. The authors also concluded that to make the biogas technology completely successful, the use of fertilizers from slurry should be effectively implemented [194]. ...
Anaerobic Digestion (AD) could be a promising methodology to convert biowastes to sustainable fuel for applications like power generation, heating, drying, cooling and so on. Forceful amendment in technologies, government policies, social behavior and economic aspiration cause vital analysis of those factors for successful generation of energy from biowastes. To accomplish the need, the current review deals with the status of biowastes utilization, biowaste conversion technologies and influencing parameters of the conversion process. This paper conjointly reviews totally different pre-treatment and co-digestion ways that improve the effectiveness of AD. Moreover, the economic merits of these well-studied technologies are summarized and compared in terms of autoclave performance, environmental advantages, and the status of real-world applications.
... In the Highlands of Ethiopia, rural farm households have been compelled to change their fuel source to agricultural residues due to firewood scarcity [14][15][16][17]. The fuelwood crisis is now widespread in the central and north Highlands of Ethiopia, and many households are struggling to get even enough dung and crop residues to meet their fuel demands [13]. ...
... In the Highlands of Ethiopia, rural farm households have been compelled to change their fuel source to agricultural residues due to firewood scarcity [14][15][16][17]. The fuelwood crisis is now widespread in the central and north Highlands of Ethiopia, and many households are struggling to get even enough dung and crop residues to meet their fuel demands [13]. ...
This study assessed the potential contributions of improved cookstoves in increasing organic fertilizer availability for application to farmland, greenhouse gas emission mitigation and improvement of household finances using the Kitchen Performance Test, Controlled Cooking Test, household survey and focus group discussions. Substitution of a three-stone open fire with improved cookstoves significantly (p < 0.01) improved fuel use efficiency by 54% (highest) for the mirt stove with an additional biogas stove and 32% (lowest) for the mud stove without an additional biogas stove. The greenhouse gas emission reductions in carbon dioxide equivalents were 4534 (±32) kg y⁻¹, 6370 (±42) kg y⁻¹, 6953 (±51) kg y⁻¹, 7661 (±43) kg y⁻¹ for the mud stove, mirt stove, mud stove with an additional biogas stove and mirt stove with an additional biogas stove respectively. The average financial savings from the sale of surplus biomass fuel for the improved cookstoves were higher than the summed financial savings from substitution of commercial fertilizer, generation of carbon finance and replacement of kerosene for lighting. This explains why households usually prefer to sell surplus biomass fuels instead of using them as organic fertilizers. This finding suggests that wide scale adoption of fuel-efficient solid biomass stoves can contribute to the financial security of households, and may help to reduce green gas emissions, but will do little to increase the fertility of soils. By contrast, including biogas stoves will help to improve soil fertility by retaining at least some of the carbon and nutrients in bioslurry that will then be applied to the soil.
... The cost-benefit analysis of fixed dome biogas model in Ethiopia indicates that its adoption has significant positive net present value for both households, who collect their own energy sources and for those that rely on purchasing their entire energy sources (Mohammed and Inoue, 2012;Gwavuya et al., 2012). However, approximately 60% of the installations were not operational (Abadi et al., 2017;Kamp et al., 2016;Roopnarain and Adeleke, 2017). ...
In Ethiopia, like most developing countries, the majority of households depend on wood and charcoal as their cooking energy resources. This energy has a direct impact on the forest coverage and its emissions have significant health issues. Biogas technology has introduced to address these problems and reduce energy poverty in developing countries. However, the success of this technology depends on many factors such as technology appropriateness, available skill, proper introduction, and government support to create favorable financial incentives. The objective of this paper is to make an overview assessment of biogas development programs in Ethiopia, identify development barriers and provide suggestions to mitigate these barriers. The national and regional biogas program of Ethiopia has implemented to give energy for cooking and to some extent for lighting. However, it has shown limited success over the years. The National Biogas Programme of Ethiopia has shown an overall 50% achievement while the Tigray region registered 55% achievement. In addition, the owner of the biogas facility in Tigray reported a 57% functionality rate but the lowest satisfaction level of 15%. Generally, the region has shown relatively better performance in terms of dissemination and functionality but a low satisfaction rate due to technical limitation, unsteady input, and financial factors.
... Furthermore, investing in biogas production, farmers can save financial costs that could have been spent on firewood or other sources of cooking energy. Besides, farmers would save time and avoid disputes related to firewood collection, and also farmers can supply slurry that can still be used as fertiliser in agriculture production (Gwavuya et al., 2012). ...
The dairy sector in Kenya is one of the pillars for smallholder farmers' livelihoods through the generation of income, employment, and food to 2 million people across the dairy value chain although the sector is still vulnerable to climate change. Agriterra stimulates climate-smart agriculture and carbon farming to support farmers and their cooperatives to be resilient towards climate change by focusing on enhanced productivity and increasing farmers cooperatives business model. Therefore, Agriterra wanted to know the dairy-related carbon farming practices adopted by cooperative members in Kenya and the business model of linking carbon farming practices to the carbon credits schemes for the sustainable service provision and carbon farming adoption among cooperative members. This research was carried out to advise Agriterra on the business model of integrating carbon farming practices into carbon farming credits for dairy farmers in Kenya. To understand the concept of carbon farming practices, related benefits, and the integration model to carbon credits schemes; the study employed literature review, online farmers survey, and online key-informants interviews.
The study highlighted that farming practices such as planting quality fodder, intercropping trees on cropland or livestock grazing land, manure storage and producing biogas through bio-digesters have been practised among dairy cooperatives farmers in Kenya and were backed by sciences to be the potential dairy carbon farming practices in dairy. The study identified the existence of carbon credits schemes in Kenya and the viability of integrating smallholder farmers’ carbon farming practices into carbon credits schemes. The study determined that carbon credits dividends are almost insignificant to farmers, but carbon farming practices have severe positive impacts on the ecosystem and farmers livelihood.
The analysis of both Agriterra and clients cooperative business models indicated that Agriterra is well-positioned to promote farmers carbon farming practices and increase the value proposition of its dairy clients, having a local presence and a sound knowledge of cooperatives and dairy farming.
... Farmers' low purchasing power is another reason for lack of interest in biogas. For rural Ethopia, Gwavuya et al. 2012 calculated the energy cost of firewood and fertilizer. Guta 2012 outlined the great potential of Ethiopian biogas, as well as strategies to help expand biogas energy supply, thus causing negative environmental impact. ...
The central theme of the study is to assess the socioeconomic impact of household biogas plants on rural households. To this end, the study selected respondents from biogas plant holders and non-holders of biogas plants in rural areas of Muzaffar-Garh. During the field survey, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 40 biogas users in two villages in each Tehsil and 40 non-biogas users in the same village. A survey based on pre-designed questionnaire was conducted, and main data of 320 households in four Tehsil districts (interviewees) in the Muzaffar-Garh region were collected. In this study, biogas is the input variable, while elderly education and total household income are the input socioeconomic variables. Farm productivity, time saving, indoor air pollution, household hygiene, and expenditure are intermediate variables. The output variables include income, health, and education level of minor children aged 2–5 years. Structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques that describe the relationship between input variables and output variables can be used to obtain steadfast results. Based on the estimates, we have observed that BG investments have substantial impacts on farm productivity, time savings, indoor air pollution, household hygiene, and expenditure, which in turn has played a role in improving the status of people. It is concluded that many direct and indirect socioeconomic impacts of holding biogas plants on rural households can be measured. In order to widely promote biogas technology as an alternative energy source nationwide, there must be greater public participation.
... In this study, the NRV was measured as 5.39$ and confirmed that the biomass codigestion project is profitable and feasible for sustainable ND not detected in 250 ml of slurry waste management. This result is in line with Gwavuya et al. [87] that the small sizes of biogas plant in Ethiopia were more profitable than the large sizes. Kabir et al. [88] showed that under assumption with subsidy, biogas users in Bangladesh obtain better financial results compared to assumption without subsidy. ...
Anaerobic co-digestion (AD) of different organic wastes is a promising technique to enhance clean energy (bioenergy) and manure (slurry) production, reducing stress on the environment. This is an experimental study aimed to investigate 2-stage co-digestion of pretreated organic wastes mixed with fresh animal manure (BD) and digester’s operation conditions (digester temperature and pH) to enhance biomethane production. To increase lignocellulose digestibility and biomethane (BM) production, fruit + vegetable waste (FVW) and corn stalks + wheat straw (CR) in ratio (1:1), respectively, were pretreated with inoculum taken from an anaerobic digester of poultry manure at 35 °C. This AD experiment was performed in a fixed dome biodigester with volumetric capacity of 2.3 m³. Biomethane potential (BMP) tests were conducted for biomass treatments and inoculum used (T1, T2, Ti) at 35 °C. In this study, the temperature of biodigester material was measured in mesophilic (30–40°C) and thermophilic (40–50°C) ranges and pH of fresh feed and slurry feed digesters was in optimum methane production range (7.01–7.52). The total daily methane productions from T1 and T2 were 125.13 ml/g VS and 104.89 ml/g VS in mesophilic range (30–40°C) while these values were 148.41 ml/g VS and 132.74 ml/g VS in mesophilic range (40–50°C), respectively. The 2nd stage digestion of slurry from fresh feed digester added 39–45% and 35–38% more methane production in T1 and T2 respectively. On calibration with BMP tests, experimental data have shown the synergetic effect on methane production and its thermal characteristics promoted by co-digestion of pretreated organic waste and BD. The economic and feasibility analysis proved the biomass co-digestion project viable and adoptable with positive (5.39 $) net return value (NRV), 2.92 years payback time (PBT), and 1.34 benefit cost ratio (BCR).
Graphical abstract
... In addition, there have been studies focused on establishing the linkage between biogas technology adoption and the health (Abadi et al., 2017), in conjunction with research work done on assessing the domestic biogas sector in Ethiopia (Kamp & Forn, 2016). In addition, there has been research conducted on assessing the potential sites for Jatropha production in Ethiopia using geographical information systems (GIS) (Taddese, 2016), compounded with studies focusing on the techno-economic assessment of biogas energy in rural Ethiopia (Gwavuya et al., 2012). ...
Ethiopia has a vast renewable energy potential in the context of hydro, wind, solar, and geothermal energies. The unsustainable use of biomass coupled with drought has caused a paradigm shift towards wind, geothermal, and solar energies. There have been significant strides by the Government of Ethiopia to actualize these potentials in the context of developing massive projects in these aforementioned areas with the private business sector in the goal of jettisoning the industrial base of Ethiopia in conjunction with increasing the installed power capacity from 4,300 MW to 17,346 MW by 2020. The major challenge still lies in assessing the comprehensive renewable energy resource potential of Ethiopia including the lack of local content development in the context of establishing an industrial base. There have been notable initiatives by the Government of Ethiopia to adhere to the Paris Climate Accord in conjunction with the Green Growth framework and Sustainability Development Goals. However, the top down approach of grand targets to the various regions is not the pragmatic approach to solving the Achilles heel of energy poverty. A more plausible approach is from the bottom up, whereby energy frameworks and policies are generated by conducting a needs assessment of a specified region. The appropriate technology concept needs to be reflected in the innovation aspects of renewable energy technologies. There has to be a framework of translating invention to innovation by actualizing the tripartite structure of Government, Academia, and Industry.
... The source of household energy consumption can be classified as heating and cooling, lighting, cooking, hot water supply, and electric appliance. 4 Findings show that 5 the two most commonly used fuels for cooking in selected ten rural sub-Saharan African countries were fuelwood and farm residue, with a proportion of 74% and 12%, respectively. ...
In the rural areas of the eastern Amhara region where livelihoods are predominantly based on agriculture with almost all the rural people earning their income from agriculture, awareness toward clean energy, and efficient appliances is at a very infant stage. As an indication, the research comes up with energy utilization is mainly of biomass-based with traditional stoves of very low efficiency. However, the future demand of the community toward the clean and improved efficient appliances has got a better preference over other energy technologies. Regarding the factor in determining the energy and energy appliance type choice, accessibility is found as the major reason.}The type of energy sources and energy technologies utilized for cooking and lighting have their own effect on health, environmental degradation, and overall economic development. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to analyze the general trend of household energy source and energy technology utilization in rural areas of the Eastern Amhara region. The study utilized primary and secondary data collected over stratified systematically sampled households and from energy experts in the area. The study examined the utilization of various forms of energy and energy technology for the most common household energy-intensive processes (injera baking and stew cooking) as well as lighting. The development of different estimates across the whole population of the study region to indicate the relations among different factors was done through different statistical approaches; and the finding of the analysis revealed that 57.7% of the energy share is biomass-based firewood from which 99.5% of this source was used only for food preparation. The two main determinant factors of the community in selecting the energy types are found to be accessibility and health impact.
... Much of the time burden arises from the procurement and preparation of fuel as well as from long hours cooking on inefficient stoves [12][13][14]. Time spent collecting wood fuel varies depending on location, availability, and ease of access, with data showing values in the range of 4-20 h per week [7,[15][16][17]. This time burden is increasing in many areas as a result of deforestation, forcing women to walk further to find the fuel they need, sometimes with risk of attack or injury [13,18]. ...
It is estimated that women in Sub-Saharan Africa spend three times longer than men on unpaid work, such as household chores and caregiving. ‘Time poverty’ restricts women's involvement in paid work, as well as educational, political, and social activities, thereby perpetuating gender inequality, economic poverty, and a persistent drudgery trap. A significant time burden for women living in communities dependent on biomass fuel and traditional cookstoves arises from the procurement and preparation of fuel, as well as from long hours cooking on inefficient, polluting stoves. We used a mixed methods study in 55 households in rural Kenya to explore the impact of introducing a more efficient biomass cooking technology on time use and quality. Quantitative survey, stove use monitors (SUMs), and qualitative research methods were used before and after households were given new wood burning stoves.
... To Hernández (2015), energy insecurity explains the hardships experienced by low-income households with respect to the cost, burdens of household energy, poor housing quality, and related coping strategies. Prior to this conceptualization, energy insecurity has been examined in relation to food insecurity and child health (Cook et al., 2008), the emission of greenhouse pollutants (Wilkinson et al., 2009), water insecurity (Eichelberger, 2010), energy supply continuity (Winzer, 2012), and energy economics (Gwavuya et al., 2012). More recent studies have developed a contiguous concept -energy povertywhich focuses on quantifying energy deprivation as opposed to energy access (Nussbaumer et al., 2012). ...
Energy insecurity, the lack of access to adequate, affordable, reliable, acceptable, and clean sources of energy for a healthy and sustainable livelihood, poses a challenge to several households. However, the conceptualization of its dimensions and role in the health outcomes of women, infants, and children in most sub-Saharan African countries have rarely been investigated systematically. We assessed the dimensions and adverse consequences of household energy insecurity (HEINS) in a sample of 347 Ghanaians and 420 Nigerians, with over 80% participation of women. The majority of respondents from Ghana (57%) and Nigeria (80%) had experienced of energy insecurity, at least once in the last four weeks. Following the energy insecurity framework, the experiences of participants were classified into physical, behavioral, and economic dimensions of energy insecurity. The consequences of energy insecurity grouped into psychosocial, nutritional, and disease domains. The development of a national as well as a cross-culturally validated scale that embodies these dimensions and domains will facilitate the assessment of the prevalence, causes, and consequences of HEINS. This will eventually enable the development of interventions and policies to mitigate energy insecurity and unearth modifiable factors that influence deleterious maternal, infant and child health outcomes in low-and middle-income countries.
... Due to high initial cash outflow (BDT 47,000), plant 4 shows the lowest NPV. Analogous outcomes were obtained by Gwavuya et al. (2012) in Ethiopia and by Walekhwa, Lars, and Mugisha (2014) in Uganda. With a high discount rate, the value of NPV reduces. ...
Energy usage disparity is burgeoning across the world. Therefore, biogas can be promising towards energy solution in bucolic regions of Bangladesh. Exploiting small-scale plants (3.45, 2.4, 2.7, 3 and 3.3 m³), this study elucidates the economic congruity of gasification through cost–benefit analysis. The estimated mean investment cost was BDT 39260/plant, whereas an average BDT of 8792.85 and 6856/year/plant return obtained from biogas and bio-fertiliser. All plants yielded positive net present value (NPV) in both 10% and 15% discount rates. Complacent internal rate of return (average 33.2%), positive benefit–cost ratio and lower PBP (average 2.5) debunk the feasibility of a capital-intensive investment like biogas. Sensitivity analysis elicits discount rate as the most sensitive and endorses inverse relationship between cost items and NPV. The average value of the biogas/plant is approximately tantamount to 1650 kWh electricity/year/plant which is sufficient for the energy demand of seven people. Therefore, this study espouses galvanising rural households to confide more on renewable energies like biogas.
... A cost-benefit analysis for implementing biodigesters in rural households for traditional cooking, lighting and producing fertilizers showed that breakeven has been reached in the 10th year for households collecting firewood and 8th year for households collecting dung. Though positive net present values are seen, the biogas utilization will increase the risk of investment without subsidies [20,21]. The economic studies based on solid-state fermentation for fermentative hydrogen generation from food waste show that the system is feasible with a PBP, rate on investment (ROI) and internal rate of return (IRR) of 5 years, 26.75% and 24.07%, respectively [22]. ...
The environmental impacts of conventional energy sources and the policies of governments on renewable energy technologies lead to biogas generation and utilization as one of the major areas to replace conventional energy sources with renewables in a number of applications such as power generation, heating, drying and refrigeration. The non-uniform availability of biowastes in a year, the lack of studies on the potential of biogas generation with non-uniform feeding of biodigesters and the economic viability of using this technology in such situations are the major factors to be analysed for the implementation of biogas in wider applications. Therefore in this present work, analytical and experimental studies have been conducted to predict the generation of methane from the biowastes collected from student hostels, restaurants and other residential buildings in educational institutions, where the availability of biowastes is not uniform throughout a year. The Anaerobic Digestion Model 1 (ADM1) was used for analytical studies, and four portable anaerobic digesters manufactured by fibre-reinforced polyester were used in the experimental investigation. The average methane content has been observed between 52.28% and 58.01%. The variation of yield and the quality of biogas throughout years, due to non-uniform organic loading rate, are also presented. The economic benefits of implementing biogas plants in five different categories of institutions were also studied, and payback period has been obtained between 3.18 and 7.59 years, besides having a positive net present value.
... In particular, we examined aspects of financial investment and profitability, as well as the distributional effects (e.g., landless farmers vs land owners). In other contexts in rural areas in Ethiopia, profitability has proven to be a decisive factor in farmers' adoption of new technologies, particularly small-scale resource-poor farmers' reluctance to make long-term investments that require long pay-off periods (Gwavuya et al., 2012). ...
The use of tree-based fallowing as a sustainable land management system may serve as an important developmental pathway out of poverty across drought-prone watersheds in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. This study employs a financial analysis technique, the computation of net present values, to explore the financial viability of farmers’ investments in an intercropping farming system known as taungya. The analysis employs scenarios that include different farming systems, such as A. decurrens (J.C. Wendl.) Willd. cum teff (Eragrostis tef) intercropping, A. decurrens monocropping, and teff monocropping, as well as changes in output (charcoal and teff) prices and the discount rate. In addition, the time of sale is evaluated in terms of the distribution of profits between buyers and sellers and between sharecroppers and landowners. The intercropping practice (A. decurrens cum teff in the first year) tended to be more profitable than the alternative systems. Financially constrained farmers who have to sell their stands early, however, forego gains. Profits from stand sales later in the 5-year evaluation period were more equally shared between sellers and buyers. Sharecropping profits for farmers ranked among the lowest of the computed profits. A sensitivity analysis revealed that an increase in the discount rate tends to have a more detrimental effect than price fluctuations on the profitability of acacia-based taungya systems, although sharp price fluctuations could affect profitability and cause a farmer to shift back to an annual crop system. Despite their higher profitability, tree-based systems impose a risk of liquidity bottlenecks on farmers throughout the 5-year investment period, which implies that those who are endowed with land or who are more financially well-off can benefit from the required 5-year investment, but it may be more difficult for those who lack land or the necessary financial resources. Providing affordable financing for poorer and landless farmers could increase farmers’ use of the taungya system and allow a more equitable distribution of benefits among the rural population. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719301887)
... Ethanol cooking stoves have clear benefits for HAP as well, although GHG benefits depend on the feedstock used to produce ethanol ( Gopal and Kammen, 2009), and examples for large-scale implementation are limited (Benka-Coker et al., 2018;Mudombi et al., 2018a). Biogas has proven to be successful in improving energy access, avoiding forest degradation and improving health (Gosens et al., 2013;Clemens et al., 2018), and is particularly interesting for rural households in eastern Africa as such systems require local resources, predominantly animal manure ( Gwavuya et al., 2012;Mengistu et al., 2015). Electric cooking is the cleanest possible way of cooking, as no emissions are released in the cooking process. ...
Heavy reliance on traditional biomass for household energy in eastern Africa has significant negative health and environmental impacts. The African context for energy access is rather different from historical experiences elsewhere as challenges in achieving energy access have coincided with major climate ambitions. Policies focusing on household energy needs in eastern Africa contribute to at least three sustainable development goals (SDGs): climate action, good health, and improved energy access. This study uses an integrated assessment model to simulate the impact of land policies and technology subsidies, as well as the interaction of both, on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, exposure to air pollution and energy access in eastern Africa under a range of socioeconomic pathways. We find that land policies focusing on increasing the sustainable output of biomass resources can reduce GHG emissions in the region by about 10%, but also slightly delay progress in health and energy access goals. An optimised portfolio of energy technology subsidies consistent with a global Green Climate Funds budget of 30–35 billion dollar, can yield another 10% savings in GHG emissions, while decreasing mortality related to air pollution by 20%, and improving energy access by up to 15%. After 2030, both land and technology policies become less effective, and more dependent on the overall development path of the region. The analysis shows that support for biogas technology should be prioritised in both the short and long term, while financing liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol technologies also has synergetic climate, health and energy access benefits. Instead, financing PV technologies is mostly relevant for improving energy access, while charcoal and to a lesser extend fuelwood technologies are relevant for curbing GHG emissions if their finance is linked to land policies. We suggest that integrated policy analysis is needed in the African context for simultaneously reaching progress in multiple SDGs.
The choice of domestic fuel is a matter of great concern for households and policymakers in India. This paper investigates the switching preference of the rural households from traditional fuel wood towards cleaner fuels like Biogas, LPG and Kerosene. The study is based on a survey among 60 households residing in two villages namely, Muthakadahalli and Shettyhalli of Chickballapur district, Karnataka. The cost-benefit analysis of the Biogas units in the study area yielded appreciable NPV, B-C ratio and IRR. Inspite of this there has not been any large scale adoption of the household type Biogas units, unless there is some intervention from government departments and NGO's operating in the area. Therefore Conjoint analysis was used in order to analyze this dynamic behaviour of the rural households in switching their domestic fuel preferences. Eleven attributes namely: Durability, Reliability, Sophistication, Space, Ruggedness, Cost, Interest, Subsidy, Services, Distribution and Safety were selected along with their three respective levels; LPG, Biogas and Kerosene. Using the conjoint function utility (part-worth) scores were generated which indicated the preference of fuels with respect to each attribute. Here LPG was the clear winner among other fuels as it received highest positive utility score for majority of the attributes. However, given the increasing subsidy burden, import bills, energy security concerns and long term sustainability, universal LPG coverage in the country may prove to be a sub-optimal solution to meet clean cooking energy needs. Therefore a comparative assessment of domestic fuels available in the study area comprising of Biogas, LPG and Kerosene was carried out. Even though Biogas was found to be the most capital intensive solution during the installation period, continuous fuel supply was assured based on the operational availability of the plant. On the resilience of technology front Biogas plants and Kerosene stoves fared the worst indicating that there was still some way to go before end-users viewed these solutions on par with LPG.
According to the Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015 and with 191 members joining the agreement as of March 2021, countries aim to limit the average temperature increase to 2 °C (even 1.5 °C) from the pre-industrial period.
The Chinese government has called for clean and effective energy substitution for
cooking in rural areas. This paper assesses the environmental and economic impacts
of various types of cooking fuels and stoves. According to the assessment results, the
environmental impacts are highly influenced by the types of fuels and the efficiency of
stoves used for cooking. Using biogas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and natural gas
for cooking instead of solid fuels can significantly reduce environmental emissions. To
provide 1 megajoule (MJ) of useful cooking heat, the environmental costs of lump coal,
honeycomb briquettes and straw are the largest, estimated to be 80.4 yuan/MJ, 73.1
yuan/MJ, and 71.4 yuan/MJ, respectively. In addition, the economic assessment
results show that the most expensive source of cooking fuel is LPG, with an average
annual cost of 1700 yuan, while the cost of straw and firewood is the cheapest, at less
than 100 yuan. The average annual cost of electricity is higher than that of natural gas.
Regarding the substitution effects, using natural gas for cooking is better than using
electricity. The environmental benefit of electricity substitution is only 10%-20% of
natural gas substitution, and the corresponding increasing cost for residents is 1.5
times that of natural gas substitution.
Domestic biogas technology helps to foster sustainable development in different ways. It is particularly important in countries like Ethiopia where about 80 % of the population lives in rural areas, and more than 90 % of the households use solid biomass for cooking. In light of this, the Government of Ethiopia has launched a National Biogas Programme in 2008. The Programme, now in its third phase, has successfully installed tens of thousands of biogas digesters. This paper aims to give a macroeconomic insight on the role of the biogas sector in Ethiopia. The annual gross value of biogas outputs reached USD 7.7 million in 2015/16. Installing biogas digesters contributes USD 1.4 million each year to the construction industry. Results of the study indicate that the micro and macroeconomic contributions of biogas sector partly rely on the effective utilization of its co-product (i.e., the slurry) as fertilizer. Agricultural policies of the country should therefore highlight and link domestic biogas production with the extension services.
The strength of rural area in pioneering technologies encountering the current challenges of biogas research has been less addressed. Scientometric analysis has been carried out to understand research trends, perspectives and promising future prospects of biogas technology in rural development. 1427 publications have been retrieved from scientific databases and analyzed for major contribution of international collaborative partners, current research hotspots and subject areas to assess the evolution of biogas technology. Scientific publications on biogas grew rapidly from last decade wherein China has the highest research publications of 324 with 23.08% significant contribution. Keywords clustering analysis showed pretreatment strategies, influence of substrate mediators and its microbial interaction for process upgradation were the promising main research hotspots. The subject categories, “Energy and Fuels” is more popularized whereas “Economics” needs more attention. This study gives and insight on scientific advances and potential research gaps of biogas technology for rural development at global level.
Scarcity, insecurity, and severe environmental impact of fossil fuel-based energy consumption have enthused the production and utilization of alternative energy resources. Biodiesel is identified as promising renewable energy that can substitute the petrol diesel consumption with numerous advantages. However, more than 95% of biodiesel is produced from edible oil crops, which jeopardizes the food supplies. As a result, exploring inexpensive and non-edible oil-bearing energy crops such as Jatropha curcas (Jatropha) has been the target of governments, researchers, industries, and policymakers. However, sustainable biodiesel production from this plant is not achieved yet due to various ecological, socioeconomic, legislative, and technological factors. Previous reports showed that the individual impact of those factors; however, all factors are strongly correlated, and the impact of one factor is significantly affected by the situation of other factors. Therefore, the present review is devoted to critically examine and discuss the sole and interactive effect of various factors affecting the cultivation of Jatropha for sustainable biodiesel production by reviewing more than 185 published articles. Various oil extraction and biodiesel production technologies and factors affecting the physicochemical properties of Jatropha oil and biodiesel were profoundly investigated. Moreover, the performance, combustion, and emission characteristic of diesel engines fuelled with Jatropha biodiesel were carefully reviewed and compared with petrol diesel. In conclusion, factors affecting the sustainable biodiesel production potential of Jatropha vary across growing regions due to variation in determinants, and the performance and emission characteristic of diesel engines fuelled with Jatropha biodiesel slightly differed from petrol diesel.
Background: The depletion of bioenergy sources has caused significant deforestation, low agricultural production and energy crisis. This study evaluates the technical potential of biogas technology adoption in replacing firewood, charcoal, kerosene and chemical fertilizer in Northern Ethiopia.
Methods: Questionnaire household survey, key informant interview, focus group discussion and field obervation were used for data collection.
Results: Biogas technology adoption reduced the use of firewood, charcoal, dung cake, and kerosene consumption by 58%, 36%, 71%, and 74%, respectively. It also reduced the use of chemical fertilizer by 94% and the combined use of chemical fertilizer and manure by 91%. Adoption turned the majority of households (65.4%) to use combination of bio-slurry and chemical fertilizer. It helped the majority (89.95%) of adopters to construct and connect toilets to biogas operational system. In doing so, adoption reduced defecation in the field and improved environmental sanitation and human health. It further enabled saving of about 38% of adopters’ time, which otherwise would be expended for firewood and dung collection. It similarly enhanced adopters’ income through decreasing expenses for chemical fertilizer, kerosene, and other fuel sources.
Conclusions: Biogas technology has huge potential of replacing traditional fuel sources for domestic consumption, and of reducing the consumption of kerosene and chemical fertilizers as well as of increasing income and decreasing time for biofuel collection.
One of the major indicators of social and economic development of a nation is energy. The global development in energy production has so grown that there are currently less than a billion people without access to electricity. However, Africa has again been left out of this mundane progress while Asia with about the same energy dilemma was able to provide electric energy to 375 million of its citizenry between 2011 and 2017. Meanwhile, India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia were all able to provide over 80% electrification rates to their teeming population. Though some levels of improvement have been witnessed in Africa's electrification projects up to about 43%, the slow pace of development in comparison with other parts of the globe is very worrisome especially due to the ever-increasing human population being witnessed across the African continent. This explains why yet over 600 million African are still living without access to electricity. Therefore, this paper examines the past and current status of bioenergy development across Africa while advocating for the inclusion of bioenergy in the African future energy projection due to their immense potentials to transform the continent. Africa stands a chance of becoming a major player in the global energy market.
Farm Energy Management in India:
The Transforming Economy and
Ecology
The study of social ecology has gained a new momentum after social system theory came into
operation. Extension is basically a science of knowledge system where in continuous and
evolutionary interactions are occurring between knowledge and “social space”. In this complex
system the other components are (a) adoption and adoption period, (b) rejection, (c) Discontinuance,
(d) reinvention crop and crop enterprises, (e) market and market intelligence, (f) meteorological
components and cognate biological components. All these components are inextricably interacting
with each other to ultimately characterize the journey of knowledge into social space. The
transformation of agriculture and mellifluent is the common nature for the new age agriculture.
There is a clear showing from per hectare biological production to per hectare value generation with
ecological pursuits and dimensions. Farm energy metabolism basically estimate the dynamic of
energy exchange between natural ecology and social ecology, as on date, we are use to perceived of
yield in terms of biological productivity expressed through quintal of wheat production per hector.
Seldom think in terms of volume of energy that we have yielded or trapped from the unit volume of
farms. When the entire input are assure, we are not enough sure whether we can trapped the energy
efficiently, in case any farm start losing its energy balances, the factor of production must suffer. It is
a local oratory that the soil is cool, it means the energy emission from the soil basically farm soil,
then its trapped energy from the atmosphere in the form of photosynthesis, in addition to it the
unscientific tillage operation are also responsible for energy prodigal farming. Day will come when
germination of seed will be very difficult because of the downfall of latent soil energy, so a genre of
extension science has to go a long way making this small and fragmented farms energy saving as well
as enough productive to ensure food security.
Social ecology through its integrative and orchestration function can rationalize the expenditure after
agriculture in the form ofi.
Application of agro-chemicals like fertilizers, pesticides. Handling of factor production with
higher proficiency in terms of economic health
ii. Generation of values in terms of calorie values, quality contents like proteins, minerals and
therapeutics and making the volume of food production affordable and accessible to people of
marginal sections.
iii. The model on energy in social ecology has got three basic considerations –
iv. Flow of energy from one small niche and in between can be called social metabolism.
Chapter–1
S.K. Acharya, G.C. Mishra, Sneha Bera and Sarafat Shaik
Farm Energy Management in India: The Transforming Economy and Ecology
ISBN: 978-81-930585-4-1 2
v. The flow of capital into this system of entrepreneurship intensity of rotation to ultimately
characterize enterprise product and outcome.
vi. Conservation of energy through considering the renewability level of different energy forms
entering the system.
The energy consumption pattern in India, especially in the agro-ecosystem, followed by small and
marginal farm holdings, around 85% of total 130 million farm families in India, generating 259
million tonnes of food grain that include a record production of 106 million tonnes of rice, 95 million
tonnes of wheat, 22 million tonnes of maize, 17 million tonnes of pulses, about 30 million tonnes of
oilseeds, 210 million tonnes of horticultural production, 180 million tonnes of milk and 8. 7 million
tonnes of fish (2011-12), has got tremendous implication and need to be added against total volume
of energy consumed is in a positive balance or poised with a negative balance either.
Civilization, human being used their own strength in moving and carrying loads, trapping animal,
hunting for their food. In the Stone Age, man discovered the making of fire by rubbing together two
pieces of wood. This revolutionary discovery was the first attempt of man to use energy from a
source outside his own body. Since then he has continuously striven to minimize labour for
practically everything through the use of tools and machines. The rapid advance of human progress
that occurred during the historic period from the Neolithic Age to what we call the Dawn of
Civilization, some 3000 or 4000 years ago, is characterized by the use of solar energy indirectly
through the biological system that produce grain and animals for men’s survival.
During the later Neolithic period, humans used animal power and stone tools to harness agriculture.
With this step, men manage to couple his own energy – magnified through tools – with the energy
resources of the Sun a
Climate change caused by global warming, and the growing scarcity of nonrenewable energy sources, have driven Pakistan to shift from a traditional energy consumption pattern to a renewable-energy-use pattern. The per capita energy consumption in rural Pakistan is very low, especially in rural areas heavily relying on traditional energy sources. This paper presents the extent of biogas technology adoption by Pakistani rural households and the factors affecting their decision to adopt the technology in three selected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The data were collected by interviewing 480 respondents by using a pretested and designed questionnaire. The results show that the household adoption rate of biogas technologies is low. The factors affecting the adoption decision of households included household income, access to credit, cultivated land area, the number of cattle in the household, education, and family size. The study also found fundamental barriers to the household adoption of biogas technologies, such as a lack of proper technical services by implementing organizations and insufficient governmental support. The authors make recommendations based on the findings to increase the adoption rate of biogas technologies in rural Pakistan.
Abstract The energy problems of the developing world are both serious and widespread. Lack of access to sufficient and sustainable supplies of energy affects as much as 90% of the population of many developing countries. Some 2 billion people are without electricity; a similar number remain dependent on fuels such as animal dung, crop residues, wood, and charcoal to cook their daily meals. Without efficient, clean energy, people are undermined in their efforts to engage effectively in productive activities or to improve their quality of life. Developing countries are facing two crucial-and related-problems in the energy sector. The first is the widespread inefficient production and use of traditional energy sources, such as fuelwood and agricultural residues, which pose economic, environmental, and health threats. The second is the highly uneven distribution and use of modern energy sources, such as electricity, petroleum products, and liquefied or compressed natural gas, which pose important issues of economics, equity, and quality of life. To address these problems, this paper evaluates some successful programs and recommends that governments support market-oriented approaches that make the energy market equally accessible and attractive to local investors, communities, and consumers. Such approaches ideally improve access to energy for rural and poor people by revising energy pricing and by making the first costs of the transition to modern and more sustainable uses of energy more affordable.
Access to modern energy is one of the most basic requirements for development. In rural areas of developing countries, there are a large number of people who do not have access to LPG and depend on traditional biomass such as wood, crop, and dung for cooking. In addition, energy has numerous and complex links with poverty reduction. Therefore, it is important to estimate the impacts of energy access improvement on socio-economic situation in the rural areas of developing countries quantitatively. This study focuses on socio-economic impacts of cooking demand through changes in stoves adopted by the rural households. We have developed an energy-economic model of rural areas in India to analyze the links between energy, income, and health hazard, applying both opportunity cost for using fuelwood and exposure to Resipirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM). As a result of the analysis, there is a positive relation between the opportunity cost and the average RSPM exposure of women in the rural areas. Following to increase in the opportunity cost, that is, income, the cost of an improved wood stove becomes relatively lower first than that of a traditional wood stove, and then a gas stove attains price competitiveness. It is achieved that the average RSPM exposure is below the WHO and Japanese criteria for Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), 190 and 100 [μg/m3], at the opportunity cost of US$9 and 15/GJ, respectively.
Many analyses of the “woodfuel crisis” in developing economies take little account of the significant difference between physical and economic woodfuel scarcities. Even when woodfuels have become physically scarce, households have a great deal of latitude in changing their consumption patterns in response. This paper questions whether the usually understood impacts of the woodfuel crisis are clearly the outcome of physical scarcities, or instead are an outcome of much more fundamental features of the socioeconomy involving labor use, land tenure and usufruct, the transition from subsistence to market economies, and cultural practices. It suggests that the singular focus on woodfuel production in many forestry project interventions has obscured more fundamental issues related to household resource allocation and factor endowments.
In Namibia, as in many parts of Africa, households are highly dependent on forest resources for their livelihoods, including energy needs. Using data originally collected for Namibia's forest resource accounts and insights from a non-separable household model, this paper estimates household fuelwood demand. Specifically, the factors underlying the substitution between fuelwood collected from open access forest resources, cow dung, and fuelwood purchased from the market are analysed. Heckman two-step estimates show that households respond to economic scarcity, as measured by the opportunity costs of collecting fuelwood, by reducing energy consumption slightly more than by increasing labour input to collection. There is limited evidence for substitution from fuelwood to other energy sources, particularly with declining availability of forest stocks. Market participants may be more sensitive to price changes than non-participants. All estimated elasticities are low, similar to those observed in previous studies.
It has long been known that the economic assessment of large projects is sensitive to assumptions about discounting future costs and benefits. Projects that require high upfront investments and take years to begin producing economic benefits can be difficult to justify with the discount rates typically used for project appraisal. While most economists argue that social discount rates should be below 4%, many international development banks and government planning agencies responsible for project appraisal can be found using rates of 7-12% or more. These agencies justify choosing higher discount rates to account for the opportunity cost of capital. Meanwhile, a new and robust debate has begun in economics over whether social discount rates of even 3-4% are too high in the context of climate change.
This paper reviews the recent discounting controversy and examines its implications for the appraisal of an illustrative hydropower project in Ethiopia. The analysis uses an integrated hydro-economic model that accounts for how the dam’s transboundary impacts vary with climate change. The real value of the dam is found to be highly sensitive to assumptions about future economic growth. The argument for investment is weakest under conditions of robust global economic growth, particularly if these coincide with unfavourable hydrological or development factors related to the project. If however long-term growth is reduced, the value of the dam tends to increase. There may also be distributional or local arguments favouring investment, if growth in the investment region lags behind that of the rest of the globe. In such circumstances, a large dam can be seen as a form of insurance that protects future vulnerable generations against the possibility of macroeconomic instability or climate shocks.
The hill areas of Nepal are a prime example of an area in which low-productivity agriculture is surrounded by rapid environmental degradation as the result of deforestation, and the interaction of the two is promoting further deterioration in both. In this report, the cost in time spent collecting fuel is used as a measure of the consequences of deforestation; its effects on time allocation, agricultural output, food consumption, and nutrition are examined. In particular, the allocation of women's time is influenced because women are engaged not only in the collection of fuelwood and other essential forest products affected by deforestation - such as leaf fodder and grass for livestock feed - but also in agricultural production. Results suggest that it is not enough to rely on out-migration or reforestation efforts alone to improve the economy and ecology of the region. It appears necessary to increase productivity of the traditional crops through the use of improved technologies that already exist and can be promoted, thus shifting away from subsistence production and promoting the growth of rural market infrastructure. -from Authors
In developing countries, especially in rural areas, 2.5 billion people rely on biomass, such as fuelwood, charcoal, agricultural waste and animal dung, to meet their energy needs for cooking. In many countries, these resources account for over 90% of household energy consumption.
This paper provides a picture of energy resources and their current use in rural Ethiopia and presents an analysis of energy supply patterns and consumption trends. This exercise aims to build an empirical knowledge of real energy systems in the country and also to synthesize and analyze the general and specific problems that exist within the current energy system. Based on these lines of analysis, a series of technical and policy-oriented recommendations for rural energy development are discussed.
This paper gives an overview of the sub-Saharas energy scene and identifies key issues of concern. It points to some likely future trends in energy use and suggests options to meet future needs. The paper then identifies possible barriers to implementing these options and the policies needed to overcome these obstacles. The prospects for the region are excellent if it is viewed as an interdependent region; isolationist thinking and alienation of the vast rural majority will only perpetuate existing poverty. The region must cooperate and search for very clear development agendas and integrating mechanisms to develop the financial, institutional, and political structures required to implement these technologies. -from Author
To woo householders into harnessing the cooking energy potential of biogas in order to solve the perennial cooking energy problems at household level in Nigeria, this paper carried out the engineering design requirement, and used the discounted cash flow micro-economic assessments to evaluate the 6.0 m3 family-sized biogas project in Nigeria. The project has an initial investment cost of 41,088 Naira, annual expenditure of 5909 Naira and an annual benefit of 13,347 Naira. The NPV, IRR, B/C and payback period of financial analysis are 0.050 million Naira, 17.52%, 2.26 and 6.6 years respectively. This shows that the 6.0 m3 family-sized biogas project using cattle dung as substrate in Nigeria has a good economic potential.
In this paper a re-examination of the original time-series data sets used by Professor Douglas and associated researchers to establish the existence of an aggregate production function is undertaken. Particular attention is paid to the issue of whether the data provide deductive sup-port for the 'Laws of Production' as claimed by Douglas (1948). Various statistical methods are used to analyse the data to see if the claims of Douglas are justified. Only the New South Wales data and to a lesser extent the New Zealand data yield results that support the assertions of Douglas -hence the Antipodean defence.
Sub-Saharan African countries are well-suited for the biogas digester technology because of their warm climates and availability of animal manure. This technology could serve as a means to overcome energy poverty, which poses a constant barrier to economic development in Africa. A generative type of capital cost estimation based on knowledge of flowsheet and major equipment, which can be used by investors to indicate the magnitude of the proposed investment and help to provide other information, including the profitability of the project, was employed. In this study, three operating, small to medium scale biogas plants and one commercial scale biogas was used to determine the cost structure. Analysis of the breakdown of the fixed capital investment (FCI) cost, based on the principle of factorial method of capital cost estimation and using Lang factor (fL) analysis was used to create an econometric model for calculating FCI. A Lang factor (fL) value of 2.63, 2.91, and 3.04 has been obtained for small/medium scale biogas plants in two African locations. Calibration of the factors revealed that fL value of 2.63 gives a better cost prediction. The verification of the correctness of the performance model also revealed that the model satisfies all the three Conte's criteria indicating that the model is sufficient for the purpose of effort estimation. An estimated fL value of 1.79 was obtained for the large scale biogas plant. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2009
This paper disusses domestic energy supply and demand in rural India. Links between forest scarcity and household fuel collection are analyzed in a non-separable household model, focusing on substitution of non-commercial fuels from the commons and the private domain. Based on data from villages bordering a protected area, a novel maximum entropy approach is used for estimation. It is found that households respond to forest scarcity and increased fuelwood collection time by substituting fuels from private sources for forest fuelwood. However, the magnitude of the response appears insufficient to prevent current fuelwood collection practices from causing serious forest degradation
This article uses household data from Nepal's two major populated regions (and 27 of 59 districts within those regions) to examine fuelwood consumption and production. In contrast with a purely market assessment, household analysis includes production which is consumed in the producing household. The household regressions yield coefficients and elasticities that are very different from and more reliable than a comparable assessment of market demand and supply. Household results generally support the hypotheses that expenditures on fuelwood are a small share of total household activity and that fuelwood is not sufficiently scarce to alter household behaviour. Fuelwood is sufficiently scarce, however, to alter behaviour for those households in the hill region that do not participate in market exchange. These households may be the best targets for public market interventions designed to alter fuelwood supply and deforestation.
Deforestation and decline in agricultural productivity are major concerns over large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. One of the
principal causes for both these phenomena is the export of woodfuels from rural agroecosystems to urban markets. This process
is noteworthy because of the size of the trade. Wood fuels (fuelwood, charcoal, and agricultural residues) constitute the
most important source of energy in these countries, varying from 60% to 95% of total energy consumption. In terms of the environmental
impact of the fuelwood trade, solutions typically considered are the introduction of improved cookstoves, fuelwood plantations,
and fuel substitution by conventional fuels. This article examines the structure of the fuelwood problem, reviews the successes
and failures of past experiences, and focuses on the potential for fuel substitution as an option to reduce the urban demand
for fuelwood.
The set of Cobb-Douglas production functions is usually fitted by first linearizing the models through logarithmic transformation and then applying method of least squares. However, this procedure is valid only when the underlying assumption of multiplicative error-terms is justified. Unfortunately, this assumption is rarely satisfied in practice and accordingly, the results obtained are of doubtful nature. Further, nonlinear estimation procedures generally yield parameter estimates exhibiting extremely high correlations, implying thereby that the parameters are not estimated independently. In this paper, use of expected-value parameters has been highlighted and the advantages of their use have also been discussed. Finally, the developed methodology has been illustrated by applying it to the wheat yield time-series data of Punjab.
The unsustainable exploitation and destruction of forests is a serious environmental concern in the developing countries of Africa. One of its main driving forces is the growing population causing a growing demand for fuelwood. In Ethiopia, as in many developing countries, there is a heavy dependence on and a growing demand for fuelwood. This dependence has been contributing to a widescale deforestation, as stated in various reports. Contrary to these reports, a study in the Chemoga watershed found a slightly increased forest cover during the past four decades, which was ascribed to households' tree planting practices. The objective of this study was to examine household level tree planting activities in reference to biofuel consumption patterns in four sample villages in the watershed. The results indicate that fuelwood and cattle dung accounted for nearly 100 per cent of the domestic energy consumption, with cattle dung contributing 34 per cent of the total. Fuelwood and dung combined, per capita biofuel consumption was estimated at 511 kg yr−1, but with variations between the villages and socio-economic groups. Supply appears to have influenced the quantity of biofuels used. The scarcity of wood for fuel and other uses has forced households to plant trees. This has contributed to the increased forest cover of the watershed at the present as compared to that four decades ago. Number of trees planted showed variation between the villages and socio-economic groups, which is attributable to physical and human factors. In promoting tree planting, agroforesters and environmental management planners should therefore take into account local level biophysical and socio-economic realities. This agroforestry practice is a good short-term solution to the problem of fuelwood shortage, and also has many positive implications for environmental management and agricultural production. Thus, it has to be encouraged. Spatially aggregated, local level agroforestry practices contribute positively towards global ecosystem health. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Cobb-Douglas production function is still today the most ubiquitous form in theoretical and empirical analyses of growth and productivity. The estimation of the parameters of aggregate production functions is central to much of today's work on growth, technological change, productivity, and labor. This paper has taken up Samuelson's [1979] invitation to verify empirically his claim that all the regression of the Cobb-Douglas [1928] production function does is to reproduce the income accounting identity according to which value added equals the sum of the wage bill plus total profits. This paper concludes that Samuelson was right, and believes that this argument has very serious implications for today's work in macroeconomics.
This paper reviews the state of economic understanding about fuelwood in developing countries. It synthesizes the main results from numerous empirical studies with the intent of identifying implications for policy and pointing out where important questions remain unanswered. Overall, the empirical results reviewed reinforce the contention that households alter their behavior in the presence of sufficient scarcity in ways that are least costly to them. Still, the cost can be substantial and many cases remain where policy intervention is justified to address concerns of both equity and efficiency. Addressing the coping capabilities of the very poor and the open access conditions of woodlands appear to be two ways of dealing with fuelwood scarcity that are likely to yield high social rates of return. Community forestry has the potential to address these two important areas, but there is little evidence to date that this is being done with fuelwood in mind.
This paper develops a methodology for estimating structural time-allocation models for self-employed households and applies
it to peasant family labour supply behaviour in the Peruvian Sierra. The opportunity costs of time, or shadow wages, of household
workers are explicitly estimated from an agricultural production function. Using an instrumental variables procedure, the
household's structural labour supply parameters are recovered from variation in these shadow wages. The empirical results
are robust to a number of alternative specifications and diagnostic tests and lend support to the rational allocation of time
by peasant households.
This paper discusses the factors guiding household choices of cooking fuels. This is crucial for policies to combat indoor air pollution. Household income is an important, but not the only, factor. Opportunity costs of firewood also play an essential role. Empirical results are based on the 2000 Guatemalan LSMS survey, which includes a detailed section on energy use. Patterns of fuel use, energy spending, Engel curves, multiple fuels, the extent of fuel switching, and the determinants of fuel choice are analyzed.It is common in Guatemala to use multiple fuels for cooking 48 and 27 per cent of urban and rural households do so. Modern fuels are often used alongside traditional solid fuels; modern fuels thus fail to displace solid fuels in many cases, particular in rural areas and the urban bottom half. This is paradoxical since a significant share of firewood users buy wood from the market, incurring costs that are substantial, also in comparison with the costs of modern fuels.
Report on the feasibility study of a national programme for domestic biogas in Ethiopia
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- Heedge
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Biomass fuel consumption and dung use as manure In: Discussion paper series
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Mekonnen A, Köhlin G. Biomass fuel consumption and dung use as manure. In: Discussion paper series. Addis Ababa: Environmental Development; 2008.
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A cost-benefit analysis of national and regional integrated biogas and sanitation programs in sub-sahara Africa. An African initiative
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Renwick M, Subedi P, Hutton G. A cost-benefit analysis of national and regional integrated biogas and sanitation programs in sub-sahara Africa. An African initiative. Nairobi Winrock International; 2007.
Public works and social protection
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Baseline household and community energy survey in Meskan woreda
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Gender issues in accessing energy for sustainable development
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Household fuel use and fuel switching in Guatemala In: Energy sector management assistance programme (ESMAP)
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Biomass fuel consumption and dung use as manure
- Mekonnen
Household fuel use and fuel switching in Guatemala
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