Farmers’ preferences and willingness to adopt anaerobic digestion technologies: a case study in rural areas in Colombia

Abstract

Although Colombia has a great potential for bioenergy production, the national energy matrix still has gaps and challenges when it refers to the promotion, adoption, and implementation of renewable sources of energy. In this study, we investigated the preferences of the local farmers and their willingness to adopt biogas technologies. Based on the results obtained, a protocol for the adoption of biodigesters by small farmers was proposed. The results obtained in this study show that the majority of the respondents of this study are the owners of their land, and use it mainly for agricultural purposes. Although about 56% of the inquiries do not have enough knowledge on how to obtain biogas from agricultural or livestock waste, about 93% are willing to use gas/biogas technologies instead of using firewood and other dry organic waste. Based on the results obtained in this study a protocol to support the development and implementation of biogas technologies in the rural areas of Colombia was proposed, taking into account the bioenergy potential available and the profile of the farmers.

Keywords:

• Agricultural residues
• bioenergy
• biogas
• lignocellulose
• South America
• zero-waste

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Vice Rector of Research from Universidad de Medellin, and the Faculty of Engineering and its research centre for all the support received for the publication of this article. The authors would also like to thank the Universidad de Medellin for the grant received to support the studies of a PhD student. The authors would like to extend our appreciation to the chairman of the universities board of biomass studies organized by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) of Colombia for the periodic organization of meetings.

Authors’ contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support was received during the preparation of this manuscript.