Sistema.bio is all about commitment. We are committed to the Earth and to those who farm it, those who care for it. Over the past few months our team in Sistema.bio India has proven exactly how committed they are. Last year we were lucky enough to begin two extensive projects, which we want to share with you now.
Since it all started, Sistema.bio has had the purpose of bringing effective, affordable biogas systems to farmers everywhere. Now, ten years later, we want to scale our impact in order to reach as many farming communities as possible. In this sense, we want to build new partnerships with organizations, businesses or institutions that are looking to create projects with social or environmental impact.
The first project was possible thanks to a multinational software company based in Bangalore, Southern India. In an effort to meet their sustainability goals, they have worked with different kinds of renewable energy products, including solar lanterns, solar home systems, clean efficient cookstoves and conventional biogas. They soon realized that biodigester technology creates the broadest array of impacts, from C02 reduction to soil fertility and farmer health, and that through it they could quickly meet their sustainability goals. As soon as they noticed it, they started looking for the best products in the market. That’s how they found Sistema.bio.
After substantial research, they selected us not only for the quality of our state-of-the-art biodigesters, but for our after sales service. Through their foundation, they chose Sistema.bio to install and test our biogas systems in small farms in Karnataka, India. They then put us in touch with a local NGO, Savayava Krishi Pariwar (SKP), which has been promoting organic farming in Karnataka state for over two decades. For this project, SKP provides last mile transport and local installation support. Within a few months, Sistema.bio was able to deliver 4,000 biodigesters to different districts of Karnataka state in partnership with SKP.
Sistema.bio worked hard to develop different kinds of training materials on various aspects of farmer communication, installation techniques, storage and last mile transportation, and were able to train SKP’s 200+ local staff for delivering this massive project. For now, we are happy to share that this partnership will result in the installation of thousands of biogas systems in India over the next few years.
The second project was done with the support of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). The NDDB is a state-run institution that is in charge of ensuring that every state in India develops a good cooperative system of milk collection and storage. They also do a lot of work and research for the betterment of dairy farmers. In this spirit, the NDDB wanted to set up a case study not only for biogas but for bioslurry.
India has a very big network of farms and cooperatives, and the NDDB wants to make use of powerful bioslurry to create a source of income for the farmers. The biogas would be used for household consumption, and NDDB would come by the farms and buy the bioslurry from the farmers, which would later be sold to other organic farmers. After considering proposals from many quality biogas companies, we are honored to say that Sistema.bio was awarded to take part in the project. We were then commissioned to install 368 biodigesters in Zakhariyapura, a small village with not more than 400 households. This was a monumental task given that Sistema.bio had only 50 days to plan, deliver, deploy technicians, arrange plans with the farmers and install the biodigesters. It was indeed a great challenge for us, but we were able to fulfil the task thanks to our committed team. Around 34 people were involved in this big task, split in different task forces: some dug the pits, some placed the geomembrane, some did the piping. Despite it being done at the peak of the monsoon season, we managed to install all the plants in the provided time frame.
Projects like these are proof that more and more people are looking to get involved in biogas solutions, noticing their effectivity for driving change at different levels. While the first project was about working with small farmers to help the environment, the second is all about adding value to strong agricultural networks. Both cases mark a historic moment for our company, since never before had we installed so many biogas systems in such a short period of time. By building new partnerships and participating in these sort of projects, we not only gain new and exciting experiences as a team, but we also get to scale our impact: we get to work with more and more farmers around the globe.
We continue to be amazed at the power of what we are doing, and all the hard work the Sistema.bio team does day to day. With difficult times ahead, we are more committed than ever to contributing to food sovereignty, energy autonomy and resilience for farmers all over the world.
