Apit Zamzam, 47, turns on a petromaks lamp in his cowshed in Padamukti, Margamukti village, Pangalengan district, Bandung regency, West Java, Sunday (17/9). The lamp can be powered by electricity produced by the processing of biogas from cow dung.
Night just arrived when farmer Apit Zamzam, 47, of community unit (RW) 024 in Padamukti village, Pangalengan, Bandung regency, lit up a kerosene lamp that illuminated his cowshed. The 16-square-meter shed houses eight dairy cattle. Accompanied by the cows’ lowing, Apit continued working.
He lifted up a pile of cow manure in the shed and brought it to a round concrete vessel just outside. Local farmers in southern Bandung, West Java, no longer hate cow manure. They used to overlook and avoid it but, nowadays, they love it.
“This vessel is a biogas reactor. Every day, I need to put cow manure in it so that my kerosene lamp can stay on,” he said while pointing at the reactor with a 12-cubic-meter capacity.
Apit said that the reactor system was first established last year. The gas from the cow manure is reliable and odorless.
To light up two kerosene lamps for 12 hours straight, Apit needs around 50 kilograms of cow manure. It is easy to obtain it as each cow excretes up to 25 kilograms of waste each day. “It’s good to save money on electricity. There’s often no power here at night,” he said.
Before using biogas, Apit said he needed to pay Rp 100,000 (US$7.42) each month for electricity. Now, with biogas, Apit only shells out Rp 80,000 a month for electricity. “Also, I no longer buy LPG tanks. I cook with biogas,” he said.
Reducing pollution
However, the benefit of using biogas is not just financial. His life as a farmer has also become much calmer nowadays. He no longer has guilt for dumping cow manure into the Cisangkuy River, a tributary of the Citarum River.
“I used to have no other choice. I didn’t know where to throw away the cow manure. Using it to produce biogas is a solution,” he said.
As a dairy cattle farming center in West Java, the Pangalengan district faced a dilemma as most of its farmers threw away cow manure into the Cisangkuy and Citarum rivers.
This is despite Cisangkuy serving as a source of clean water for residents of provincial capital Bandung. Meanwhile, Jakartans rely on Citarum for their clean water supply and the river is also a major water source for electricity generation on Java and Bali. With up to 8,000 cows in Pangalengan, this means that around 200 tons of cow manure was dumped into the rivers every day.
Various innovative programs were then introduced in Pangalengan, including in Padamukti. One of them was the use of plastic biogas reactors. However, this program did not last long. The reactors often broke down and maintenance was difficult, resulting in locals neglecting the project.
When state-owned water supply company Perum Jasa Tirta (PJT) II, which manages the Jatiluhur Dam, came to the village and offered to build concrete reactors, the difficult experience was still fresh in locals’ mind. Many farmers in Padamukti rejected the offer despite PJT II’s willingness to bear the full development cost. Fortunately, Apit, as the head of RW 024, was willing to help. With great effort, Apit asked 19 other residents to follow in his footsteps. “The reactor was built on a 294-square-meter plot of land on my lawn. The cost was around Rp 20 million,” he said.
PJT II water resource and electricity division head Dadan Hidayat said that the biogas reactor assistance was the company’s effort to engage locals in protecting Citarum.
“Apart from supporting better environment quality, the program also boosted locals’ effort to reach independence and prosperity. Used as biogas, cow manure is no longer just waste. It now illuminates,” he said.
This is not an empty dream. If one cow can produce manure to light up a kerosene lamp for 12 hours, then the 8,000 cows in Pangalengan can provide electricity for 8,000 kerosene lamps in some 4,000 farmers’ household. The difficulty of electricity distribution in West Java because of the geographical conditions may be resolved through breeding cows.
Growth medium for worms
Apit’s neighbor Ujang Sutisna, 43, has been tempted by these benefits. He once rejected an offer to establish a biogas reactor but now he is hoping he will receive such assistance. “I not only save money on my electricity bill but I could also use the biogas waste to grow worms,” he said.
PJT II biogas project implementer in Padamukti village, Redi Saputra, said that worm cultivation training was a follow-up to biogas utilization efforts. After cow manure is used to produce electricity, the waste is used to grow worms.
There are three types of worms to be cultivated, namely Lumbricus rubellus, Eisenia fetida and Pheretima sp. These worms are highly valuable and sought after by medicine and cosmetic producers and fish bait shops in Tangerang and Bekasi.
“We have established two houses, each 30-square meters in size, to cultivate worms. Now, biogas-using farmers have reaped the benefits. They can harvest up to 500 kilograms of worms each month,” Redi said.
Padamukti farmer Caca Yanto, 38, proudly showed off his Lumbricus rubellus farm. The worms were healthy with a dark red color and they wiggled around the cow manure, which had dried and was odorless.
“I put five kilograms of small worms in 20 kilograms of biogas waste. I purchased the small worms at Rp 25,000 per kilogram. After keeping them for two months, I get three times as much money. I used to dump cow manure but now I love it,” Caca said.
The night was growing darker in Padamukti. However, Apit had yet to finish his story. Illuminated with a biogas kerosene lamp at his house’s veranda near his small shop, Apit shared his story with enthusiasm. His efforts to process cow manure was not for nothing.
More prosperous
Now, apart from saving money, Apit can earn more money each month. He gets 95 liters of milk from his seven adult dairy cows each day. The selling price is between Rp 4,900 and Rp 5,000 per liter. From cultivating worms, he can earn around Rp 300,000 each month.
He used the money to establish the small shop at his house. Previously, he could only earn Rp 600,000 each month. Now, with his expanded business, he earns up to Rp 1.5 million a month.
“I had never dreamed that it would be this good. I have reaped many benefits. I can save energy, lead a calmer life and get more money. Cow manure has led us to more prosperous lives,” he said.
His experience as a farmer in Padamukti proves that living in harmony with the environment can be more than just an empty slogan. Even cow manure can be turned into green gold that brings prosperity.
