16 September 2014
LAC Workshop Calls for Increased Biogas Production from Family Agriculture
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Specialists from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuel attended a workshop on how the production of biogas from the family agricultural sector can reduce the sector's waste production, water contamination and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while providing a renewable energy source for rural areas.

unido-iica-olade-iea28 August 2014: Specialists from 16 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries attended a workshop on how the production of biogas from the family agricultural sector can reduce the sector’s waste production, water contamination and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while providing a renewable energy source for rural areas.

The meeting was held from 13-14 August 2014, at the International Renewable Energy Centre focusing on biogas (IREC-Biogas) in Itaipu Technology Park (PTI) in Foz do Iguaçu, Parana State, Brazil. PTI was created in 2013 by the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Itapu Binational, the hydropower company owned jointly by Brazil and Paraguay.

The workshop looked at how biogas production on family farms can contribute to resolving energy, water, waste and climate change problems, and issued several recommendations calling for LAC countries to formulate policies and regulatory frameworks that promote biogas production and use among family farms in the region. Cicero Bley, IREC-Biogas Director, promised participants that the workshop’s recommendations will be shared with all LAC governments in a formal document.

Workshop participants discussed how the region can contribute to the work of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Task Force 37 on Energy from Biogas, and heard a presentation by the Organization of American States’ (OAS) Interamerican Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) on rural biogas projects in Colombia and the Peruvian highlands promoted by the Alliance in Energy and Environment (AEA), an IICA project funded by Finland. Participants also visited the Agroenergy Cooperative for Family Agriculture in Parana, where 33 small-scale farms use biodigestors to produce biofertilizer and biogas from organic agricultural wastes, while in the process powering the farms and having enough excess to contribute, via a pipeline, to local electricity production at a power plant 22 kilometers away.

The workshop was co-organized by ITP, Brazil’s Ministries of Foreign Relations and Mines and Energy, IICA, UNIDO, the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE), IEA, and the LAC regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). It was attended by specialists from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. [IICA Release] [OLADE Release (in Spanish)] [PTI Release (in Portuguese)]