Oleh: Desy Nurhayati
A program that provides biogas digesters for households has benefited hundreds of families in Bali, as it allows them to turn their livestock waste into environmentally friendly gas.
The program called the Indonesian Domestic Biogas Program, or locally known as “BIRU” (an acronym of “biogas rumah” or household biogas), aims to distribute domestic biogas digesters as a local and sustainable energy source for households.
Implementation of the program is in the hands of Yayasan Rumah Energi (YRE) foundation, with support from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Netherlands government. The program started in 2009 in nine provinces nationwide, including Bali.
As of today, 405 households in nine regencies on the island have already had their biogas digester installed in their backyards.
To produce the biogas, they need around 20 to 40 kilograms of livestock waste inserted into a container, which is connected to the digester through a pipe.
“Besides using the biogas to cook and to light their houses, they can also use the slurry [the residue resulting from the process] as organic fertilizer for their farm, so they get double benefits,” said I Gde Suarja, YRE program coordinator for Bali.
In the early phase of the program, some households joined the program through a self-financing scheme. Installing the digesters costs Rp 7.5 million (US$774) per home. They also get technical assistance from YRE’s local partners in each regency.
“However, since not all households can afford it, our foundation works together with local administrations in each regency to provide subsidies, so the households get the facility under a cost-sharing system,” Suarja said.
“And since last year, Environmental Agency BLH in Badung, Gianyar and Karangasem have even provided full subsidies for some villages,” he added.
The foundation will also encourage cooperatives in villages to provide credit schemes to support more households to join this program.
Some villagers shared their experiences about the benefits of joining the program, both for their households and farms.
I Ketut Patuh, a farmer in Abiansemal, Badung, used the waste from his pig farm to produce the biogas, and use the slurry as organic fertilizer on his 2,400 square meter paddy field.
“My field used to be worse compared to other fields. Its location meant the field did not get enough water. That’s why it produced less rice compared to others.”
Every day he brought the liquid slurry to the field, starting from the land-conditioning period up to the rice crop was four months old.
“The rice looked greener, with bigger grains,” he said.
Sumber: The Jakarta Post