Everyone should have access to clean and sustainable energy solutions regardless of their economic status or the remoteness of their community. Over the years, biodigesters have emerged to be one of the promising technologies for Kenya but two major obstacles has stifled its adoption. Negative perceptions amongst the Kenyan population and high cost on the initial investment. Sistema.bio exists to tackle this exact challenge for small holder farmers. A big thank you to our farmers who have walked with us a journey to over 700 digester sales in Kenya in just 6 months and moving us closer to overcoming the challenge. This poses the questions; who are this farmers? And how have they been impacted?
Meet James Kamau, our outspoken farmer who skillfully manages his mixed farming activities with cereal business at the local center. His wife is employed and he is always alone at the farm during the day. James had to always keep his LP gas cylinder filled so that he can warm food for himself during the day. A necessary but very high regular expense for a smallholder farmer and head of a family juggling around many other priorities including fertilizer, school fees, business management among others. He was looking for a more sustainable source of energy.
Sistema.bio digester came in handy to cut on his fertilizer and cooking energy costs. This has created a ripple effect on his other expenses as he is now making savings of approximately KES 100,000 annually on energy and fertilizer which he uses to pay off school fees for his children and cater for other household expenses. When James saw Sistema.bio technology at his friend’s home across the village he couldn’t wait to get his own installed. Like many other smallholder farmers, he had been wanting to acquire a sustainable technology that caters for his needs, but couldn’t find one. “Sistema.bio’s package is for everyone. It is very high quality, you can pay as you go at 0% interest, you stop refilling LP gas, get a 10 year warranty and most of all my wife is happy,”- says James amidst laughter
Besides the benefits he has personally accrued, James vows to educate and inform many people about the Sistema.bio technology, as he believes that with it will be a reconstructed environment where people are stewards rather than destroyers of trees and environment in general and farmers can have more predictable whether conditions. “If every farmer adopts Sistema.bio, our trees will be left to grow, we will have regular rains like we used to and a beautiful environment,”- says James
For the majority of the African economies whose GDP’s are largely dependent on productivity of smallholder farmers, we must accord farmers affordable and sustainable energy and agricultural solutions that can sustainably improve their productivity. Sisema.bio started the journey in Kenya in 2017 and we are proud of our achievement so far. We also acknowledge that this is just a drop in the ocean and we roll up our sleeves every day to stretch to the next level.
