[Stoves] Biogas has also failed in India

[Saibhaskar Nakka]

Dear Dr. Karve and Mr. C.V. Krishna,

Thank you very much for your honest remarks on the reasons for failure to
own improved cook stoves and biogas plants by communities.
Here, I would like to share my experience in brief about the biogas plants.
This is the story of a village in Mahabubnagar District, Andhra Pradesh,
India, there were 18 biogas plants (Deenabandhu model) constructed by NEDCAP
under the subsidy scheme of the Government in year 2000. Each costing about
Rs. 6000 - equivalent of purchasing half to one acre of land in year 2000.
Except one all the plants were defunct within next two years. Till today
only one biogas plant is functioning. We have requested the NEDCAP officials
to renew / rectify the defunct biogas plants with our support. Although they
have made estimates, but have never turned up, instead, they said that they
could provide new biogas plants rather than rectifying the old biogas
plants. By using the experience of the farmer who is still using the biogas
plant since 2000, and with local Maison, we could rectify two old defunt
biogas plants on demand basis. Although the plants are ready about 8 months
back, the two farmers have not yet started using them.
The learning's are as such:
The Govt. is not interested in  monitoring and rectification of old biogas
plants.
The farmers are also not willing to use these biogas plants, as cow dung is
scarce (less livestock under each farmer), water shortage during summer
months, time involved in feeding the plant with cow dung slurry, no
technical knowledge on how to repair or rectify in case of problems in the
biogas plant, no service or monitoring support from the NEDCAP officials
after installation of the plant.
The final note: As per the official records all the biogas plants are
working till date.

Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy


> Dear stovers,
> C.V.Krishna narrated why improved stoves programme failed in India.
> It is not just the improved cookstoves but also the biogas is a failure in
> India. In a country having 140 million rural families, we have today only
> 2
> million working biogas plants. The dung based biogas plant is the
> costliest
> cooking device in the world, costing even more than a micro-wave
> oven.  Only
> rich dairy farmers can afford to have a dung based biogas plant. You get
> at
> least 4 times as much energy from dung if you burned it directly than if
> you
> converted it into methane.  Thus it is also a wasteful process. Our
> experiments showed that dung cakes burned quite cleanly in a stove with a
> fan. Even the costliest model of such a stove costs only a tenth as much
> as
> a biogas plant. Biogas is good for countries having year round rainfall,
> because under such conditions, one cannot dry the dung into cakes. But in
> India it can be dried very easily and used as fuel in a stove.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Choppalli Venkata Krishna <krishnacreat1 at rediffmail.com>
> To: <Stoves at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 7:50 AM
> Subject: [Stoves] Test that is ULTIMATE
>
>
>
>   Dear Frank
> I confess my failure in promoting Improved Stoves as I missed the
> following
> vital points:-
> 1- The Ministry (Govt. of India) after testing them, had approved 34
> models
> as Improved Cook stoves by '86 for dissemination in India.( The programme
> was launched as back as 1982).  We thought/took it granted that because we
> have done so much of brain exercise on Thermodynamics,/Heat Engines and
> that
> our work ( In the Laboratory) has been lauded by the Ministry, our stoves
> will be successful; we started dissemination programme.
> 2- We totally forgot the fact that from the age of 7 a Rural Indian girl
> learns Stove building and by the age of 12 she becomes an expert in stoves
> building SUITING TO HER FAMILY MEMBERS' COOKING HABITS, NEEDS & THE FUEL
> AVAILABLE IN THE VISCINITY..
> 3- We propagated that the stove which was used by her(the Rural Woman) is
> the worst one and that we have come up with an innovation that will save
> 1-
> Fuel;2- Ward off the Smoke; 3- Shall keep the Kitchen environment clean 4-
> Heath hazards will no more occur. etc, etc.
> 4- She (The beneficiary) was gentle enough to nod to our speeches as a
> token
> of acceptance and allowed the ICS to be built in her Kitchen.
> 5- We went on building stoves in millions. Most of the STOVE BUILDERS were
> MALE members.
> 6- After a year/less than a year, we discovered that either the
> implemented
> stove was UNUSED or DISMANTLED.
> 7- On questioning of the reason of the statuesque, they (95% of them)
> would
> remain silent till one goes on pestering on the reasons of Non usage. They
> lied to us that the stove was good and that on certain occasions only they
> preferred to use it; some would lie that they were using the new improved
> stove till yesterday and that today (the day of our questioning) only they
> have not used it. None of them would say that THE STOVE IS NOT
> APPROPRIATE/SUITABLE/CONVENIENT TO THEM.
> 8- We also in the spree of achieving the target fixed by the Ministry did
> not spare any time to discuss with them WHAT ACTUALY THEY WANT; we went on
> IMPOSING OUR MODEL on them however inappropriate/appropriate it was to the
> user.
> 9- In 1996 after a decade, more than 85 Improved Models were in India. But
> on introspection, the models those were disseminated in '84-85 did not
> exist
> in 87-88; the models of 86-87 were obsolete in 89-90 and so on the chain
> continued.
> 10- Saddest Part is none of us nor did the Ministry take cognizance of the
> episode and every year the Annual Report continued publishing the total
> (cumulative from -82) number of ICS implemented and the quantum of wood
> saved thereby. None of us had the wisdom to put a break to the run on one
> leg heading towards a wall. We never even assembled to introspect the
> situation.
> 11- Results- The National Programme on Improved Cook Stoves abruptly was
> discontinued.
> 12- It is some individual organizations that are able to sustain the
> Mission
> of ICS in India; but compared with the Rural households of the Country, is
> insignificant in numers.
> 13- The reason for such success by a few Organizations today is: Utter
> Patience in reaching the Goal; Involving the USER WOMEN in building the
> stoves of their choice; follow up after implementation; understanding the
> users' needs; economy; use of appropriate and locally available material
> and
> stove-builders(women). And any other that makes a stove accepted by the
> Users.
>
> We all must keep in my mind that 'There are as many stove-designs as many
> Houses'. Theory folowed by testing in par with the field needs and
> invovement can definitely bring us success.
>
> WE can learn lessons from above and if we get the facts from the
> successful
> implementers the 'Talisman' they have used for their success, YES
> our  Test
> can be concluded as ULTIMATE.
> Regards
> -Krishna
>
>
>