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Dung fuel: India taps new energy cash cow
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Manure for power: Babu Singh, the father of dairy farmer Suresh Sisodia, arranges rounds of sun-dried cow manure at Sisodia’s farm in Mayakhedi village, on the outskirts of Indore, India. (AFP/Gagan Nayar)
I
ndia is tapping a new energy source that promises to help clean up its smog-choked cities, and is already providing a vital revenue stream for poor Indian farmers: truckloads of cow manure.
Cows are venerated as sacred creatures by India’s Hindu majority. They also have pride of place in the country’s rural communities, where they are still regularly used as draft animals.
Rural households have long burned sun-dried cattle droppings to heat stoves, a practice that continues despite government efforts to phase it out with subsidized gas cylinders.
Villages on the outskirts of the central city of Indore are now being handsomely rewarded for handing over their mounds of bovine waste in a pilot project that aims to help meet the city's power needs.
"We have very good quality dung, and we keep the dung clean to ensure it fetches the best price," farmer Suresh Sisodia told AFP.
The 46-year-old has sold nearly a dozen truckloads of fresh manure at the equivalent of US$235 per shipment, more than the average monthly income of a farming household.
Sisodia's farm has 50 heads of cattle and, in the past, occasionally offset costs by selling manure for fertilizer. Now, he is hopeful for a more reliable revenue stream.
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