To utilize the country's potential for biogas development, the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) are implementing the 'Biogas Program for the Animal Husbandry Sector in Vietnam' (2003-2012). This program has contributed considerably to popularizing the use of biogas in Vietnam.

As an agriculture-based country, Vietnam has great potential to develop biogas in the animal husbandry sector. Statistics show that every year, cattle and poultry herds in Vietnam discharge about 73 million tonnes of droppings. Each tonne of muck can cause 0.24 tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, which means 73 million tonnes of animal droppings will cause 17.52 million tonnes of CO2, seriously polluting the environment.

To treat animal droppings, in 1960, the first biogas plant was built in Vietnam. Using biogas as a type of energy helps reduce environmental pollution and curbs the consumption of traditional types of energy.

Biogas is used to treat animal droppings

Biogas is used to make organic fertilizer that is good for plants. Biogas development creates more jobs for farmers. In some provinces and cities, especially at large livestock breeding farms, biogas has become a means to make use of animal droppings to generate energy. Popularizing the use of biogas, however, is not easy because the public's awareness about biogas and its positive uses remains limited.

Moreover, the cost of building a biogas plant is rather high compared with the average income of residents in rural areas. In fact, many biogas plants have been built in Vietnam but generally, they operate at low levels of efficiency and are low in technical standards.

Aware of this reality, SNV and the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have launched the Biogas Program for the Animal Husbandry Sector in Vietnam. The implementation of this program began in 2003 and will finish in 2012. The Netherlands' grant for this program is 3.7 million euros. The program's objective is to provide Vietnamese farmers with clean, low-cost energy and at the same time treat animal droppings effectively in order to protect community health.

Under the program, farmers are granted 25 percent of the cost of building a family-sized biogas plant. It is estimated that each biogas plant can save about 2.3 tonnes of firewood each year, which is equivalent to 0.03ha of forest, and at the same time create 30 tonnes of high-quality biogas waste. This waste will be used to restructure the soil and maintain organic substances that are available in the soil. Biogas by-products are very good for soil, helping improve its fertility and prevent it from becoming exhausted and eroded, thus increasing the yield of plants by 20-30 percent.

With the coordination of the Agriculture and Rural Development Departments of provinces and cities nationwide, the program has helped promote training and communication activities in order to improve the skills of workers who are involved in the construction of biogas plants as well as to improve community awareness of families about biogas. From 2003 to the end of 2009, more than 70,000 biogas plants were built in 37 provinces and cities. During that same time period, 354 technicians and 687 biogas plant building workers were trained at the provincial and district levels. A range of workshops on biogas were organized for communication and training purposes. It is projected that by the end of 2012 there will be 165,672 biogas plants serving 840,000 households in 50 provinces and cities throughout the country.

Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet, the program's coordinator, said, "With such a number of biogas plants, it is estimated that more than VND600 billion can be saved annually thanks to using less fuel for cooking and lighting purposes. Biogas plants will also help reduce the amount of CO2 emissions by more than 400,000 tonnes each year and generate jobs for nearly 3,000 rural people.".

By Phuong Lan - VEN