Bio Gas Program

The average cooking requirement per family per day is estimated to be 5 hours in rural households in Bangladesh. Each household needs about 3 tons of biomass per year for cooking purposes. Assuming that 55 percent of households use biomass for cooking, about 40 million tons of biomass fuel will be required every year for cooking alone.

Supply of such a large quantity of biomass is one of the causes of forest destruction. Biomass smoke emitted during cooking is also a cause of indoor air pollution, affecting public health, particularly poor and vulnerable women and children.

Use of agricultural residues and animal waste for cooking purposes rather than as organic fertilizer has an adverse effect on soil fertility, reducing crop production and land productivity.

Biogas needs only cattle dung, poultry droppings and water, which are commonly available in rural households. The materials used for the construction of biogas plants are bricks, sand, aggregates, cement and pipes, which are locally available.

Operation and maintenance are not difficult. Any person with one day of training can operate and maintain the plant easily. The slurry, which is a residual product of biogas, can be used as good organic fertilizer to maintain soil fertility and increase crop production.

AVA initiated the Biogas Program in 2013 as a Partner Organization of IDCOL in order to prevent further environmental and agricultural deterioration. For sustainable and clean energy in Bangladesh, it is essential to promote biogas.