Eco-Farming Project

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The Eco-Farming Project for China development objective is to deliver direct environmental and economic benefits from the integration of biogas in farming and cooking in rural households. In addition, the project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through methane combustion and reduced burning of coal and firewood in the project areas. There are three components to the project. The first component is integrated eco-farming systems. This component comprises two sub-components, (a) integrated household systems, and (b) community development, will assist farmer households to integrate biogas into their production systems to improve the environmental impact, quality and efficiency of farm production, and to improve the households' living conditions. The component aims to demonstrate best technical practices for biogas that the local governments can consider for replication in the wider National Rural Biogas Program, as well as generating both private and public good benefits. The second component is local technical extension and biogas service system. This component will strengthen and expand the existing rural energy and agricultural extension services to improve the technical support systems for operation and maintenance of the biogas systems, and facilitate integration of the existing rural energy and agriculture support services. The two sub-components, (a) service system improvement, and (b) training, will assist with: (i) refurbishing local extension and training facilities; (ii) provision of equipment and materials for biogas service systems and agricultural extension; (iii) training of county/township/farmer technicians and farmers; (iv) support to farmer biogas and related associations; and (v) applied research on improving biogas technology and management. The third component is project management, monitoring and evaluation. This component will establish an efficient and effective project management structure with well-trained and appropriately resourced staff to enable the project to achieve its objectives. The three sub-components, (a) project management; (b) institutional capacity building; and (c) monitoring and evaluation, will finance project management costs, equipment, training, and monitoring and evaluation.