Martina Schäfer, Noara Kebir, Daniel Philipp (editors) - TU Berlin

PROCEEDINGS Conference MPDES 2011
functional as national interests and individual
family/community interests are colliding. Hence, biogas
technology depends on individual interests and may not
totally respond to those on a national level (Ni and Nyns,
1996).
The socio-cultural factors are mainly a result of the
differences between field and habitus. The research
showed that utilizing biogas, with its corresponding
appliances, is not part of the social practice of the rural
society of Burkina Faso. The habitus came to the fore
since cultural and social practices did not comply with the
field of biogas technology.
Institutional and Infrastructure
Proper social, cultural, political and economical
institutions form a base for supporting adoption,
dissemination and appropriate contextual innovation of
the biogas technology (Murphy, 2001). Currently, the
government of Burkina Faso is taking part in the national
biogas program Biogas for Better Life (B4B), initiated by
a Dutch NGO - SNV. It strives to improve the
dissemination of biogas in Burkina Faso. The strategy for
the B4B program in Burkina Faso is to involve the
government (respectively Ministry for Environment and
Livelihood, Ministry of Mines and Energy, Ministry of
Agriculture and Water Resources, and Ministry of
Livestock Resources) (Mang et al., 2007). This was
underpinned by a SNV representative involved in the B4B
project. It was noted, that the expected activities of B4B
will also have effects on the legislation and erode the legal
und bureaucratic barriers, while empowering new policy
makers.
In Burkina Faso, three levels of institutions which
influence the implementation of biogas, can be
distinguished. These are the national level, the
interregional or regional level (districts or departments),
and the local level (villages or groups within the village).
As stated in the interview with the representative of the
Ministry of Livestock Resources, the intensity of
coordination among these three layers, determines the
efficiency of biogas implementations in Burkina Faso.
Unfortunately, there are currently hardly any academic
institutions dealing with biogas in Burkina Faso (Oumar,
2008). It is a prerequisite for the further dissemination of
the biogas technology that local researchers dedicate their
investigations to biogas.
In the past, there was a partial absence of academic,
bureaucratic, legislative and commercial infrastructure in
the country. Therefore, not enough support was given and
some projects were dismissed, due to these shortcomings
(Parawira, 2009). In this respect, the bureaucratic and
legislative infrastructure supporting biogas projects in
Burkina Faso has improved in the last couple of years.
Such effects are mainly due to the B4B project. But still
there is no real target group on biogas in Burkina Faso
with a governmental status. So far, there are no
laboratories which are equipped for analyzing biogas
plants on a full scale.
In the past, there was hardly any commercial
infrastructure allowing biogas installations, but according
to the interview with the representatives of CREPA and
IRSAT, materials are now becoming more available and
construction companies have started to specialize in
biogas constructions.
The habitus of the social, cultural, political, academic,
and economical institutions in Burkina Faso does comply
fully with the field of biogas. Most institutions have not
yet developed a proper way to integrate biogas technology
into their structure. Universities, for example have not yet
started to investigate in biogas. Construction companies
do not offer the construction of a biogas plant on a
professional level. The government does act in favor of
the new technology, with assistance of the donor
community.
Economic
Parawria (2009) used the term “financial factors” which
refers mainly to monetary aspects. In this study the term
economic was a much broader definition. By using the
term “economic”, it is intended to extend this category
with non monetary aspects. It is referred to the set of
capital factors commonly used in the sustainability
discourse by Goodwin (2003), which allows a more
holistic approach in this category.
Lack of money for operation and maintenance is a
common problem in any biogas program in Africa.
According to the interview with the chief researcher of
IRSAT, many plants have closed operation in Burkina
Faso due to this reason. Without a proper financial long
term support a continuous biogas production does not
seems to be possible. The monetary benefits for the local
community are moderate. In most cases there are only
very limited income generating opportunities stemming
from the sale of biogas and fertilizer (Adeoti et al., 2000).
The overall cost benefit ratio depends strongly on the
topography of the area, agricultural productivity, labor
cost at the site location, community participation, learning
curve, technology, cost of substrate, use of the biogas
product, potential for selling the (by-) products, markets
for inputs and outputs, and system of organization, just to
name the most important issues (Amigun and von
Blottnitz, 2007; Parawira, 2009).
Each new biogas plant connotes changes in the
socioeconomic equilibrium of the affected society. In the
past, it was hardly considered to compare the social cost
and the social benefits. My observations revealed that the
labor input and the necessary adaptations of the social
system involved in a biogas plant may, be higher than the
benefit.
The input, in terms of work, needs to be measured
against the benefits of utilizing biogas. During the field
research, one example of a biogas project was critically
observed. In order to supply a school kitchen with some
biogas for cooking, it would need the co-operation of the
entire village and the nomadic cow herders. One has to
ask if this is still socially maintainable? Is it really
worthwhile mobilizing a bunch of people who need to put
a lot of work, time and other resources in this project for
acquiring just enough gas for cooking?
Another crucial issue for adopting biogas technology is
the labor effort and the financial costs for switching to
biogas, compared to conventional fuels. Several biogas
projects in Africa have experienced that the rural
population finds it much easier to burn biomass directly,
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