Cow Dung Could Fuel India’s Next Road Trip
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Cow dung is getting a promotion. Japan and India have launched an initiative to build 1,000 biogas plants across India by 2030, with ambitions to help power 2.5 million vehicles using fuel made from manure and farm waste. That is quite a career jump for what usually gets scraped off boots.
The idea is not new, but the scale is what makes this worth watching. India has enormous livestock numbers, plenty of agricultural residues, and growing demand for cleaner transport fuels. Biogas can turn organic waste into usable energy while producing digestate that may return nutrients to fields. Done well, it is a circular system with fewer loose ends.
For farmers, the opportunity could come in several forms: selling manure or crop residues, hosting small-scale digesters, using biogas for on-farm energy, or applying processed digestate as fertilizer. In regions where open waste dumping or residue burning causes pollution, digesters can help turn a headache into a revenue stream.
But this road has potholes. Biogas systems need reliable feedstock collection, financing, maintenance, gas upgrading, distribution networks, and farmer trust. A digester that breaks down because nobody can service it is just an expensive concrete stomach. The economics must work at village level, not only in glossy project documents.
Still, the direction is promising. Agriculture has often been treated as an emissions problem in climate debates. Biogas flips that script a little, showing farms as energy partners. If the manure math works, the humble cow pat may help drive the next chapter of rural energy.
Original source
CNA - Read original articleMore from today's edition
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