The waste generated from the production process in the agriculture sector represents an opportunity to produce various products, including energy and biofertilizers, instead of representing a source of pollution for soils, water and air, with a negative impact on public health and biodiversity conservation. Ecuador has requested technical assistance from CTCN to develop an implementation plan to identify sustainable management models that harness energy from the manure of livestock production units.
The response plan comprises four activities:
- The first involves establishing a baseline that takes into account the local context and available information on the use of biodigesters in Ecuador and analysing successful experiences of national biogas programmes in countries on other continents.
- The second activity involves the technological analysis of biodigesters in the subsectors and regions prioritized in the first activity, describing the inputs and outputs of the biodigester.
- The third activity involves the installation and selection of pilot biodigesters at livestock production units.The pilot biodigesters will involve various models in the subsectors and regions, helping establish dimensions, installation and maintenance methods, the monitoring of production and the use of by-products (primarily biogas and biofertilizers), net emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from livestock activity, cost-benefit analysis of the technology and its contribution to income in livestock farming.
- The fourth activity covers the systematization and communication of the results and lessons learned from the technical assistance among the various stakeholders, including farming families, technicians, researchers, academics and politicians.
This response plan aims to develop tools to support the future development of a sustainable biodigester sector, allowing the promotion and large-scale implementation of the technology in order to harness the waste biomass from livestock production.