Biogas Technology Adoption And Its Contributions To Rural Livelihood And Environment In Northern Ethiopia The Case Of Ofla And Mecha Woredas

The implementation of domestic biogas technology programme at national level is a recentrnexperience in Ethiopia. Consequently, there are limited empirical evidences concerning to bothrnits dissemination and the overall impacts of the technology. Thus, this study examined therndissemination of biogas technology and its socio-economic and environmental impacts on thernrural community in Northern Ethiopia. It employed a cross-sectional survey approach involvingrna total of 358 sample biogas user and non-user households. Both qualitative and quantitativerndata analysis techniques were utilized. The study results showed that the major factorsrninfluencing households’ decisions on adoption of the technology include sex of the householdrnhead, educational level, cattle size, access to credit, income level, and the absence of biogasrn‘injera’ stove. Various institutional problems like the existence of less suitable institutionalrnstructure, user training gaps, maintenance service gaps, and human resource gaps also hamperrnthe pace of its dissemination. Besides, failure to incorporate biogas technology in the renewablernenergy list in documents like Energy Policy may negatively influence stakeholders’ commitmentrntowards its development and dissemination. Nevertheless, the use of biogas technology hasrnsignificant contributions in improving the lives of the rural people. It helps to reduce per capitarnenergy consumption by 75.1 MJ per week. It significantly reduces fuelwood, dung fuel, andrnkerosene consumptions. It also improves health and sanitation as per the perception of thernmajority of the respondents. It minimizes the overall household workloads on average by 13.2rnhours per week and significantly increases men’s involvement in the household chores. It helpsrnto improve agricultural productivity through the use of bio-slurry and the labour saved. Fuelrnsubstitutions with biogas reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission on average by about 1.9 t ofrncarbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per digester per year. It reduces the depletion of woodyrnbiomass through improving efficiency of energy use and energy substitutions, and hencernincreases carbon sequestration. Empowering females and female-headed households, improvingrneducational levels of the household heads, raising income levels, improving access to credit,rnupgrading the existing biogas model through addition of ‘injera’ stove, and creating satisfiedrnbiogas users are likely to increase the adoption of biogas technology. The institutional structurernshould be increased to programme implementation, ‘woreda’, level. Standby biogas techniciansrnwho can give immediate maintenance services should be assigned at ‘woreda’ level in thernearliest time possible. Biogas being a new technology to farmers, provision of timely userrntraining to each biogas user household involving women and children should not berncompromised. Incorporating biogas technology into energy policies, proclamations, andrnnational development plants can positively push the stakeholders to give the necessary attentionrnto its development and dissemination. To sustainably utilize the technology, maximize itsrnbenefits, and proliferate its expansions, non-operating and partially operating biogas plantsrnshould be repaired in the earliest time possible. People’s awareness about how to store and usernbio-slurry should be raised. An operational platform for joint stakeholders’ actions should be inrnplace to assist in exploiting its full potentials, and seeking and realizing the carbon reductionfinancial incentive

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