Threefold impact in rural India

It all started in 2012, when Akansha Singh was studying for her Master’s degree in Social Entrepreneurship. She stayed with communities in remote rural areas to experience first-hand what issues the farming communities in India face.

One night, she woke up at 2 a.m. and noticed that the male members of the family were not home. She discovered that they had gone out to irrigate the land, as electricity for the community was only available in the early hours of the morning.

The lack of electricity impacted not only the farmers. There was no electric light so shops closed at 6 p.m., students were not able to study at night and women had to cook food at 5 p.m. Since dinner was only eaten at 10 p.m. when families typically returned home, families often ate cold food, resulting in health problems.

Akansha thought that there must be another way for communities to create their own sources of energy, so in 2015, she started to work with co-founder Ashutosh Kumar and five colleagues to link rural communities to a community biogas plant. Domestic and livestock waste is purchased to create biogas and the by-product, a slurry, is used as organic fertilizer—an added bonus, since most of the farmers used chemicals and pesticides to treat their crops.

“When done correctly, biogas offers a clean, renewable alternative, replacing inefficient methods of heating," said Laura Williamson, bioenergy expert at the UN Environment Programme. 

"Local biogas production, including its production, distribution and maintenance, can also create additional benefits such as local employment opportunities and improvement of health while fostering empowerment.”

Currently, Akansha’s company provides biogas to 150 households and organic fertilizer to 500 famers, both at 50 per cent of the market rate. In the next three years, she plans to expand to 10,000 households and 15,000 farmers. We spoke to her to find out more about her vision for the company and her inspiration for starting it.

Why is a community biogas plant an opportunity for rural communities in India?

The community biogas plant is providing several solutions to the problems found in remote rural communities. Firstly, the gas is used as clean cooking fuel for women:  this has a positive impact on their health, as they are not inhaling smoke from charcoal whilst preparing food. Also, it saves time as they do not have to go out to collect charcoal, allowing the women to have additional activities. Secondly, the biogas plant provides cheap electricity for the community. This allows the farmers to irrigate the land during the day, the shops to stay open late and families to light their homes and have warm dinners. Thirdly, the slurry, which is the by-product from the biogas plant, is used as organic fertilizer. This increases the produce of farmers while also making pesticides and chemicals superfluous. Surplus electricity produced from biogas plant will also help villagers to set up their own rural enterprise such as rice mill, floor mill etc.

Who is your main target group?

We mainly focus on small marginal farmers in communities in low-income states in India. Within these communities, we try to improve the situation of women especially. We do so by providing clean cooking fuels, but we also employ women in our project. They collect the waste, maintain contacts and work in the plants.

How do you gain trust from the communities?

We work together with farmer producer organizations and women self-help groups. They have already gained trust from the community as they have been working with them for many years. Also, these organizations allow members to take small low-interest loans to support the community biogas project. As 30 per cent of the costs are covered by the community, this is essential. The profit that is made using the biogas plant is shared with the community.

What is your advice to other young people who want to make a change by starting a social enterprise?

First of all, do not depend on books only. Go out and look around you to see what problems are on the ground. Problems vary from place to place. Also, do not underestimate the importance of research to make sure that you figure out what the community wants and needs. I have seen many projects fail because the community did not accept the project. And last but not least, go for the environment. We need to make a change!