<i>Poultry farm sets unique example </i>

Advance Animal Science Co. Ltd., a dairy and poultry farm, has an electricity connection from the Rural Electrification Board (REB), but it hardly depends on power supply from the national grid as it has its own arrangement to meet its electricity demand.
When the country faces a mounting electricity crisis, this farm has set an example for others to follow by generating power from the bio-gas comes animal drops - cow dung and chicken litters. Bio-gas, an already popular technology, is being passed through traditional gas generators with minor modifications to generate power.
“Only one-third capacity of my plant helps me to save Tk 4,000 per month only from the power tariff I used to pay to the REB,” said Dr MM Khan, managing director of Advance Animal Science Co. Ltd.
He said bio-fertiliser is one of the by-products of the gas plant in addition to the gas and power, while the plant is providing gas to some cooking burners in the neighbourhood.
Besides, the use of animal drops in the biogas plants also helps ensure environmental security in the farm areas and remove bad smells.
A visit to the farm in Kashimpur and nearby Latifpur villages of Gazipur district suggested that adopting the technology would be useful in getting rid of the erratic power supply from the national grid and make a farm more profitable.
Khan installed the plant at about Tk 500,000, involving more than half of the expenditure for constructing the biogas plants to ensure proper supply of biogas to the generators. The payback period would be 1-1.5 years.
“It's possible to sell electricity in the neighbouring areas from an output of 10 kwh,” he said. There is an estimate that a poultry farm, having 5,000 birds, could generate 5 kwh electricity.
Used widely in different countries of the world, including Germany, the technology with the small modification at a cost of Tk 18,000 per unit started its journey from a pilot project in Faridpur only two years back. Advance Animal Co. would be the second one to undertake similar project under German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).
“The technology can help generate 50 MW power in the next two years from around 10,000 medium-sized poultry farms in Bangladesh,” said GTZ Senior Adviser Khurshed-Ul-Islam, who modified the engine.
The country at present suffering from a power supply shortage at a range between 1,500 and 2,000 MW, while there is a bleak prospect for substantial improvement in the near future.
A minister has already indicated that it would not be possible to fulfill the government's pre-election commitment for power generation in three years.
Islam said there are around 100,000 poultry farms in the country, but 90 percent of them are too small to generate biogas-based power plants. However, there are around 35,000 biogas plants across the country being used only for cooking burners.
Khan and Islam said low-cost bank loans would be helpful for the farms to adopt the technology.
But GTZ Programme Coordinator Erich Otto Gomm said, “It would help but not necessary. When a bank will find it a viable project, it'll come up with finance.”
Replying to a question, he said there is no need to seek government intervention in promoting the biogas-based power plants as it would only make things complicated. “Since it's feasible, we don't need to involve the government as it would make the process cumbersome.”
Asked if the technology would be more useful in the off-grid remote areas of the country to develop poultry and dairy farms, he said GTZ has already started disseminating information about it.