Powering agriculture: Accelerating the productive use of biogas in Uganda by smallholders

smallholder famers biogas
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Situation

Our client, a global non-profit that works to end hunger and poverty around the world, required a strategy for unlocking biogas business opportunities in Uganda.

The client’s ten-year strategic plan had an ambitious goal of "assisting hundreds of thousands of smallholder households (including youth, women, and refugees) to move from poverty and vulnerability to sustainability and resilience in a healthy environment.”

A key strategic pillar was the integration of livestock value chains with climate change, green economic growth, and renewable energy opportunities, with a significant focus on the biogas industry in this case.

Industries
Smallholder Agriculture Development
Public Policy
Agribusiness & Food Systems
Climate Action
Electric Power & Clean Energy
Gender Equity & Inclusion
Engagement

ORI conducted an exhaustive biogas industry market analysis and opportunity scoping. This included demand sizing of biodigester technologies by type, evaluation of demand growth drivers, identification of commercial use cases of biogas within smallholder livestock and crop value chains, and techno-economic analysis of various biodigester technologies to assess their attractiveness and ease of adoption by farmer typologies.

As part of this engagement, ORI supported the global non-profit to:

  • Frame the study objectives and an impact thesis for the biogas industry. Based on this, we scoped data and research requirements, mapped the biogas industry actors and stakeholders, and identified benchmark countries.
  • Identify, evaluate, and prioritize use cases for biogas and bio-slurry within smallholder farmer contexts for crop value chains, aquaculture, and poultry.
  • Conduct extensive primary and secondary research, including interviews with value chain actors, e.g., those involved in technology promotion and sales, finance, manufacture, construction, installation, and commissioning.
  • Conduct an in-depth analysis of the biogas value chain, size operating margins at every stage, and determine overall profitability based on pre-screened commercial use cases of biogas and bio-slurry.
  • Identify barriers and opportunities to the growth of the biogas market, including political economy and business enabling environment factors.
  • Assess the extent of maturity of various biodigester technologies (traditional and modern) and the potential to scale attractive opportunities
  • Model demand growth drivers based on several scenarios and match the results with strategic plan targets, using a set of rigorous filters, while benchmarking these against Kenya and India.
  • Vet potential market access and implementation partners across the value chain—and determine their strategic fit for an expanded program.
Outcomes
  • The non-profit used the biogas industry strategy and priority business cases to advance investments with the highest return on investment measured by their social and development outcomes—including greater participation by women and youth in profitable enterprises.
  • Intervention and partnerships to grow a market-led, smallholder-focused biogas industry were developed to support fundraising efforts consistent with the organization’s strategic plan.
  • Recommendations were made to review policy/regulations to enhance the adoption of biodigester technologies. Policymakers and the wider industry were engaged to advance industry development.
  • Based on the study findings and our (and client) team’s engagement with various biodigester technology actors, a global organization that manufactures modern biodigesters established its operations and presence in Uganda.