HA NOI — The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will invest US$100 million to expand the Biogas Programme until 2018 by installing an additional 100,000 on-farm biogas generators in 30 to 35 provinces, Deputy Minister Diep Kinh Tan has said.

Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy director of the ministry's Animal Husbandry Department, said: "Accomplishing this target would help increase the efficiency of the restructuring animal husbandry process which is underway and enable farmers to take the initiative in coping with climate change."

The beneficiaries of the programme would not only be smallholder farmers but also larger centralised farm owners and the amount of financial aid they will receive would increase from VND1-1.2 million (US$51-61) to at least VND3 million ($154).

The programme would also help farmers upgrade their breeding facilities to comply with technical standards which ensured biological security, Son said.

The major drawbacks that emerged from the implementation of the programme in its first phase were poor design, high construction expenses and the limited capacity of technical officials and builders.

Figures from the ministry show that to date, 100,000 biogas generators have been installed which are used to produce energy for cooking, lighting and farming.

It is estimated that each generator removes two tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air per year in Viet Nam.

Deputy Minister Tan said there were about 8.5 millions farming households in the country but only one-fifth of them had biogas generators.

"Animal farming is thriving but of the 18,000 livestock farms, only 60 per cent treat waste with the help of the generators," he said.

Tan said along with the development of animal husbandry, the demand for biogas generators from small holders and larger farms was increasing. There would be no sustainable animal husbandry without measures to mitigate and prevent environmental pollution.

"That's why the ministry is promoting this programme very hard," he said.

Ha Noi is the leading user of biogas generators, accounting for one-tenth of the country's total. Deputy director of the Ha Noi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Pham Ngoc Thach said most generators had helped improve the environment and living conditions of farmers.

Thach said that over the next five years, all farms, particularly poor ones, would get better access to credit so they would have the financial means to build new biogas generators.

Besides official financial aid, farmers would be eligible to borrow VND4 million ($205) to build one generator. — VNS