Poultry farmers in Noapur village, in Munshirhat union of Fulgazi upazila, Feni, have stopped throwing away the droppings their farms produce every day. Nine of them, among them Abdul Kader Jilani, Delwar Hossain, Abdul Motaleb Bachchu, Nazir Ahmed Rasul and Nurul Alam, have built biogas plants, and the gas now reaches the stoves of about a hundred households in the village by pipeline.
The process is simple. Droppings collected from the sheds go into a sealed tank, where microbes break down the organic matter without oxygen and produce biogas. The gas is piped to the connected kitchens, and the material left in the tank after digestion can be processed and used as organic fertiliser.
Abdul Kader Jilani keeps about 8,000 birds on two farms. Gas from their daily droppings covers his own family's cooking and supplies 11 neighbouring households. Managing the waste used to be a real worry, he said; now the waste is put to use and the kitchen gets fuel.
Chicken droppings are not just waste to be dumped, Delwar Hossain said: with the right technology they make gas. Abdul Motaleb Bachchu said unmanaged droppings harm the environment and the plant has given the farmers a way to use them. Nazir Ahmed Rasul wants technical support and training for farmers, so that more of the many poultry farms nearby take it up.
Rafiqul Islam, a resident who cooks with the gas, said it gives his family an alternative fuel and saves them money.
Feni district livestock officer Dr Md Delwar Hossain said organic waste such as poultry droppings can be turned into biogas with the right technology, which deals with the waste and supplies fuel at the same time, but the handling has to be safe for the environment and public health. People involved in the work say training, technical help and easy credit for farmers would spread the technology further in rural areas.
Reported by Banglanews24's staff correspondent.
Photo: Manure stored for a biogas plant at RDA, Bogura (illustrative), Ibrahim Husain Meraj / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Banglanews24
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