New opportunities in Anantapur District through biogas

An Indian woman bent under the sun, searching for firewood in a groundnut field with a child strapped on her back - this is a daily image in Anantapur District, India. These people depend on firewood to cook and agriculture as their labour. But the drought, the increasing crop failures and livestock deaths imposing high economic losses and undermine food security. People here are most vulnerable to climate change and they will get far more severe as global warming continues.

Promising new opportunities for mitigating climate change and creating large new markets for agriculture have emerged through the production of biogas-units. The use of biogas for cooking has a lot of advantages. For the women who prepare a meal two times per day it is a blessing. Traditional cooking with wood is cheap but it causes a lot of smoke and in the long term also health problems. Biogas must replace the wood. This will save time and money.

This collection of pictures was taken by Jan Beyne, one of the volunteers in SEDS. In the last six months he did research on the social economic impact of biogas on smallholders. 170 people (85 biogas users and 85 non-biogas users) were interviewed with questions about their social and economical life in relation to biogas. The statistical analysis will be published later on. But from the first numbers and graphs, we can see there are some significant social, economic and environmental benefits:

Social benefits:

 Reduces drudgery to women who spend long hours and travel long distances in search of fuel wood
 Increases women and children's overall health situation by reducing smoke in kitchen, thus eliminating health hazards from indoor air pollution
 Improves education of children as women have more time and resources to nurture their children and send them to school

Economic benefits:

 Higher productivity of workers as they have adequate cooking fuel supply
 Will provide employment to local communities through construction and maintenance of biogas units
 The project will reduce cooking time, thus providing women to take up other activities

Environmental benefits:

 Improves the local environment by reducing uncontrolled deforestation in the project area
 Improves local surroundings through better waste management
 Will lead to soil improvement by providing high quality manure
 Reduces deforestation, preservation of pasture land,
 Avoided global and local environmental pollution and environmental degradation by switching from non-renewable biomass to renewable energy, leading to reduction of GHG emissions

Happy family with a new biogas-unit.

Woman and child cooking on biogas-stove

Republic day

The 26th of January SEDS commemorates the date on which the Constitution of India came into force replacing the Government of India Act 1935 as the governing document of India on 26 January 1950. It is one of the three national holidays in India. While the main parade takes place in the national capital, New Delhi, the anniversary was also celebrated at the school in SEDS.

The morning started with speeches from Henry, the principal of the school, and the staff. Afterwards the children prepared a talent show, where they were performing songs and plays. In the afternoon, everyone played games on the field.

The patriotic fervour of the people on this day brings the whole country together even in her essential diversity. Every part of the country is represented in occasion, which makes the Republic Day the most popular of all the national holidays of India.

Annual Christmas clothes distribution – PIA

In the morning of the 2nd of January 2012, 179 children came to the SEDS campus for the annual Christmas clothes distribution. After wishing each other a happy New Year, the children were divided into four different groups; green, blue, pink and white. In front of the school the first group went for an individual picture and received their new clothes. In the meanwhile the other groups went for art classes, outdoor games, measurements and indoor games. Thanks to PIA, SEDS and the VTC Centre who made the clothes, all the children started 2012 with a magnificent new outfit. In the end every one of them got a lunch of chicken and eggs at the SEDS campus.

Registration and distribution of ID cards

Handing over new clothes

Group picture: everybody wave those hands!

Yummy lunch!

Banner SEDS-PIA

Art Classes: Origami of Santa Claus     

CDM progress

While SEDS staff sat together for the CDM meeting of December, in South Africa world talks on climate change struggled to overcome a rift on the future of the Kyoto Protocol (and CDM). In Durban, the European Union is trying to forge a coalition of the willing behind its plan in order to put pressure on the world's top three carbon emitters - China, the United States and India - to sign up. None are bound by the Kyoto Protocol, the only global pact that enforces carbon cuts. Washington says it will only pledge binding cuts if all major polluters make comparable commitments. China and India say it would be unfair to demand they make the same level of cuts as the developed world, which caused most of the pollution responsible for global warming.

The conference is finished with an agreement that the EU sets a 2015 target date for a new deal that would impose binding cuts on the world's biggest emitters of the heat-trapping gases, a pact that would come into force five years later. The climate agreement is saved, the climate on the other hand…

SEDS is working hard on the CDM project (Clean Development Mechanism). By building well-functioning biogas systems, SEDS can yield a whole range of benefits for their users, the society and the environment in general. The major benefits SEDS is focusing on are the following: saving fossil fuels, saving time collecting firewood, protecting forests, saving money, improving hygienic conditions, producing high-quality fertilizer and improving the rural standard of living. SEDS realizes that they cannot reduce the global climate change, but they believe in the fact that they can reduce the local emissions and save the local environment. At the same time SEDS is doing research on the social and economic impact of the CDM-project, because they believe in the positive impact of biogas-installations on households.

Last month SEDS identified 977 new beneficiaries for biogas installations. The excavation of the pits is done and construction is going on. The digging of the pit can either be done manually with labor or use a mechanical excavator. Sand, bricks and granite chips (jelly), cement and hardware are provided by SEDS after the pit is excavated. In the mean while several tractors, trucks and bullock carts are transporting material to the people seven days a week.

 

Public awareness of the biogas-installations

Digging the pit

LCF meeting (Bagepalli)

On the 10th of November 2011, the Low Carbon Farming (LCF) coalition came together once again for a meeting in Bagepalli. In April 2010 five participant NGO’s had taken a giant leap and planned out a strategy for a yearlong Pilot Project around LCF. The idea was to generate carbon revenues from Sustainable Agriculture (SA) practices for poor people.

The NGOs have been delineating discrete plots through GPS readings and GIS mapping where SA is adopted. Baseline emissions from current (mainstream) agriculture were researched and estimations for future emission reductions, through SA practices, were made. Diaries were handed out to the farmers and regular meetings and trainings were held in the villages to make sure farmers were adopting SA practices and understanding the new dimension of LCF. At the same time the five NGO’s have improved their knowledge on LCF.

LCF encourages farmers to adopt SA practices that reduce, minimize and remove the use of synthetic fertilizers because they generate green house gases. Their benefit in this will be the extra income they make by generating real emission reductions. This is done through, anaerobic composting, using organic fertilizers, mulching, intercropping, multi-cropping, water management in paddy and a horde of techniques specially designed for particular regions, populations and climatic zones. At the meeting every NGO talked about their LCF practices. All through the Pilot Phase the NGO’s SA practices and technical skills have been raised by the new requirements set by LCF. Now is the time to think forward about the Implementation Phase.

During the meeting the importance of the diary was discussed. We came to a conclusion that daily monitoring is very important. The diary is the basic document for each farmer. Each farmer has to use his diary on time. Every time the farmer undertakes an activity in his field, be it weeding, fertilizing or some other, he/she has to write it down in the diary. Many farmers have already practiced SA technologies in the Pilot Phase. Now is the time to collect all the correct information of each village. The following questions are very important: where (village), who (farmer), where (again) (plot), what (crop), how much. It is also very important to survey all the farmers, not only the LCF farmers. This creates a control group.

Paddy field

Another topic on the meeting was about the future vision: SA or organic farming. Organic farming can be seen as the pinnacle of SA. With SA the chemical fertilizer has to be reduced and organic input increased in order to bring a balance in the in- and outputs of the farmer. In organic farming the usage of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is completely abandoned. But there are a lot of difficulties and limitations in organic farming during the whole process. As for now we have to move towards organic farming, step-by-step but focus on LCF first.

During the Pilot Phase every NGO has built ‘trust’ with the farmers. This ‘trust’ has to be maintained and more LCF practices have to be implemented. This is one phase. The next phase is to present the emissions reductions from the LCF practices as scientifically validated ‘offer sheets’ to potential buyers of carbon credits. Ram proved this very clearly: what can’t be measured can’t be managed. Next to ‘trust’ we also need ‘proof’. The next three years the actual project implementation will be taken up. Small and marginal farmers will receive an incentive through carbon revenues to adopt Sustainable Agriculture practices. During this project implementation phase, the 5 participant NGOs will continue delineating the discrete plots of small, marginal and other drought affected farmers and improving their SA skills.

Discussion with a farmer group

Clothing for the needy

One of the most important necessities for humans, besides food and shelter, is clothing. Around the world, several families in developing countries do not have enough clothes to wear every day. In some villages in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh in India, people wear the same clothes every single day because they have nothing to wear.

There are many people across the globe who have piles of unused clothing in their closets. In the past year SEDS received donations from kind hearts. These donations can truly make a difference in the lives of men, woman, and children who really need clothes to wear.

On the 2nd and 3rd of November SEDS prepared the collection of donated items for distribution to depressed villages. Together with the staff, SEDS decided to give the clothes to three poor villages in the area of Roddam and Gudipalli.

In every village men, women and children were smiling with their new clothes. These smiling faces and SEDS would like to thank all the donors. With donors working hand in hand with SEDS, those who used to be unclothed will be given a new hope!

Diwali at SEDS

Diwali or Deepavali, popularly known as the “festival of lights”, is one of the most important festivals of the year for Hindus. Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. These lamps are kept on during the night and one's house is cleaned, both done in order to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome. Firecrackers are burst in order to drive away evil spirits. During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends.

Diwali was also celebrated at the SEDS campus on the 26th of October. After the hostel children wished each other a Deepavali Shubhakankshalu (దీపావళి శుభాకా౦క్షలు), a happy Diwali, they got a new pair of shoes. Proudly as they were on their new clothes and shoes, the boys and girls posed for the camera. As you can see on the photos every single one of them was very excited.

During the evening, the children lit up the campus with dozens of diyas. In the end, everyone enjoyed the sweets and the firecrackers. The evening sky above the SEDS campus was a colourful sight to watch, thanks to Sunita Rajan and Anshu Srivastava. The children had a fantastic day and say thank you!