Dairy owner taps into bio gas in CCpur

By Alex Guite
LAMKA, April 2: Zaniang who runs the (L) Nulzathang Dairy Farm has defied the odds and fired up her kitchen literally with the fruit of her labour in the form of cooking gas that had been generated from waste of her dairy farm.

Apart for producing many things like milk and employment , the dairy farm has been instrumental in producing cooking gas which is worth being imitated by all the other gas starving  populace of CCpur. According to Zaniang, "The farm was started in 1995 with 4 cows and by 1996 with a subsidy from the Dept. of Science and Technology, Manipur , a bio gas plan was fixed by experts from outside.

"Even four cows are sufficient enough for supplying cooking  gas to a household as the main component of cow dung is never in short supply," Zaniang says. She confided further that the main problem in this gas generation is water which is essential for producing the gas as the cow dung has to be stirred up with water which then generates gas from the underground tank which serves as the cylinder of the gas. "My only problem area with the PHED  program in zone two of my area is as good as not existing and I have to constantly struggle with it," she adds.

Zaniang's perseverance and effort has been able to make her self produce cooking gas for the past 20 years now even as her neighbors are constantly troubled by gas irregularity coupled with constant bandh along the highways.

One secret of her success is that to get a good output of cow dung she makes sure to feed the animals properly which she says has a constant need of calcium rich food that comes with a price.

For the record (L) Ngulzathang Dairy Farm situated at Mariam Street, Phailian, Lamka had been all this time supplying milk in large quantity on a daily basis  and at the same time made good the waste of the cows dung which supplies cooking gas.

The dairy farm was started in 1995 by Zaniang  with her husband, an animal lover. Together, they turned the hobby into a brand which went on to supply milk of 53 liter (aprox.) daily and also generate employment to others particularly the helper Bahadur whose family of five has all along been supported by the dairy farm.

On inquiry she said that she hardly gets any govt aid from the concerned veterinary department. "I am  thankful to the Milk Union, Porompat for presenting me a grass cutter for my dairy farm, " she said, adding that he now has 12 cows in her diary.

It may be recalled that under the 11th five year plan, the department of New and Renewable Energy had approved National Biogas and Manual Management Program (NBMMP)  one of whose aim is to provide clean bio gas fuel mainly for cooking purpose and also for other application reducing the use of LPG and other conventional  fuel.  Infact, it was Mahatma Ghandhi who preached the use of self made gas for rural india but the need to provide rural India with a viable and sustainable source of fuel has perhaps never been realised nor reflected in current literature, as biogas seemingly dropped out of journals in the 1990's.