Kompas - Saturday, 28 January 2012 | 03:13 WIB

Bandung, Kompas - The whole time waste cow dung in Lembang, West Bandung Regency, had been started to be utilized soon after the milk cow farmers received digesters (the machine used to process cow dung into gas) from Rabobank Foundation, The Netherlands. Until Friday (27/1), there have been 368 biodigesters installed at houses of farmers, the members of North Bandung Cow Milk Farmers Cooperative.

The Head of North Bandung Cow Milk Farmers Cooperative (KPSBU) Hamdan Sobahi explained that his side has targeted 1,000 biodigesters installed at farmers' houses by the end of 2012. There have been 7,000 cow milk farmers integrated as members in KPSBU. They each own three cow milks in average that in total amount there are about 21,000 cows producing 10 kilograms of cow dung per cow each day along with 120 tons of milk produced per day.

Keep on Growing
According to Hamdan, Rabobank Foundation has given assistance in credits for digester installments since 2009. Every single digester used local components except for the main faucet used to flow gas from digesters into the farmers' houses. "Ever since then, the farmers' trust on biogas keep on growing," he acclaimed.

On Thursday (26/1), a member of Rabobank Group Executive Council, Gerlinde Silvis, visited KPSBU and had a dialogue with some milk cow farmers.
Gerlinde also saw the energy from cow dung (biogas) project himself. "Indonesia is an important country for us. One of our initiatives is to help small scale farmers produce green energy," he said after seeing biogas energy used for cooking and lighting at one of the farmers' house.

The pipes flow biogas into the kitchen to be used for cooking needs. Waste produced by biodigester then processed into organic fertilizer. "By using biogas, we do not need to buy elpiji gas," said Etty Sumiati, a housewife and a farmer who is also one of the first biodigester users. (che/dmu)

Source: www.kompas.com