After holding trainings and workshops on biogas technology in Sri Lanka for participants from Malaysia and the Philippines (see News from March 2018 and News from October 2018 ), the third and final training on the technology hold place now in Nampasan Village (Sabah State, Malaysia).  The aim of this training was to design and install a tubular gas biogas digester based on already installed examples in Latin America. With slight improvements to the local conditions in Malaysia on the geomembrane , the biodigester got more durable and puncture resistant to the environmental circumstances.  Also the usage of kitchen waste for the biodigesters had to be considered, therefore improved geomembrane has been chosen to use. 

The trainers were practitioners from former trainings on biogas digester technology and were supposed to work with the local community members to install biogas digesters in the village.  The trainees included staff of KOPEL, PACOS Trust and TONIBUNG CREATE as well as from the local NGO CLEAR. The first day was focused on the theoretical knowledge transfer on the design of the digesters considered the amount of waste and the need for the created fuel. Following this, the theoretical knowledge got applied and both the trainers and trainees installed biogas digesters. For practical reasons the location was at the pig farm of CLEAR, where the biogas digester could directly showcase its capabilities. The results of this installed biogas digester are impressive: 230 liters of biol and 3.095 liters of biogas per day, which is enough to cook for 10 hours or to cook for 5 hours and burn 2 gas lamps for 6 hours each! 

Read more about the project here:  Exchange: Waste to Wisdom: Supporting Biodigester Practitioners in South East Asia (SEPS15)

It is great to see that our partner SISTEMA.bio received this award, recognizing their extensive work in the field and also seeing the success of the efforts.  WISIONS collaborated with their mother company IRRI Mexico in projects, for example the SEPS-Project Removing Barriers to Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Medium-Scale Agricultural Livestock Activities in Mexico. The WISIONS Team congratulates and wishes all the best for the future and successful further cooperations. 

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Innovation based on decentralized renewable energy can help tackle crucial technical challenges faced by family and small-scale farmers worldwide. Decentralized renewable energy enables the supply of energy directly where it is needed and deploys locally available energy resources. For these innovations the focus shifts from solely supplying energy to its application for the function required; e.g. pumping water, treating organic residues or processing produce.

In this free WISIONS webinar we showed how energy practitioners are advancing innovations based on renewable energy to improve water availability for family and small-scale farmers. While the general idea is simple (local energy supply enables water pumping, which in turn facilitates/improves irrigation options), a number of aspects should be considered: 

• What strategies ensure that small-scale farmers can access the relevant technology, services and maintenance? 
• How can improved water supply effectively translate into improved livelihoods and increased revenues? 
• What options ensure that increasing the pumping capacity does not lead to greater depletion of water resources? 

With our speakers we explored these and other crucial aspects for advancing renewable energy-based irrigation that effectively supports farming families’ livelihoods. 

Lucie Pia Pluschke, GIZ Germany, Powering Agriculture  

Pooja Sharma, Practical Action Nepal

Jorge Ayarza, MinVayu and Wind Empowerment

Willington Ortiz, WISIONS, Wuppertal Institute 

Moderator: 

Jessica Rivas, WindAid Institute and Wind Empowerment 

 The slides can be found here: WISIONS Webinar7 AllSlides