Sustainable Power for Milk Chilling

Due to limited access to electricity and lack of cooling facilities, smallholder dairy farmers might lose up to 50 percent of their milk to spoilage. Rationally, less milk to sell translates into lesser income for the farmer.

Our off-grid-on-farm cooler allows the farmers to store, deliver and sell highest possible quality of raw milk in order to increase their income. The solution not only uses biogas to provide the cooling, but also uses a membrane to separate the liquid and solid proportions of the slurry. This greatly reduces the overall water demanded which is a crucial and limiting resource that limits the abandonment of biogas digesters by the farmer within a short time. The solution helps to reduce milk spoilage, increase their livelihoods, and reduce their pressure on natural resources.

Please join us and seize the opportunity to sustainably improve the quality of life of dairy farmers in rural Uganda. 

In rural areas, raw milk cannot be cooled at dairy farms due to lack of access to (reliable) electricity. Quality of (evening) milk that is lost because it doesn’t survive the heat overnight is rejected by collection centres. The resulting post-harvest milk losses at farm level are estimated at 30-40% (FAO 2003), creating a lost income opportunity for farmers and a growing gap between milk supply and milk demand.  Uganda’s milk production is largely dominated by rural small-scale farmers owning over 90% of the national cattle population (FAO, 2006). Milk production was at 1.5 billion litres with 1.05 billion litres (70%) commercially traded along the value chain (Diary Development Authority of Uganda [DDA], 2013). 945 million litres are sold unprocessed as raw milk by the informal markets. 10% of this is lost to spoilage during transportation, 11% during handling and marketing, while 6% is at farm level. Overall 27% of the milk produced is wasted, translating into significant losses to the industry. The Ugandan dairy sector’s major challenges are (1) lack of pasteurization, (2) non-existence of simple coolers, and (3) unreliable electricity supply. 

The Milk Cooler provides off-grid biogas-powered milk cooling on-farm, allowing smallholder dairy farmers without access to electricity to store, deliver and sell the highest possible quality of raw milk and increase their income. This offers an innovative and cost effective one-stop-waste management solutions at the source of generation This bottom-up approach is new to the dairy industry such that, instead of focusing on the top of the cold chain - the processors - we focus on filling the gap at the bottom, where the problem originates: at the dairy farmers. Adoption of this innovation would imply that milk spoilage by off-grid farmers will greatly be minimised as the biogas milk Cooler shall be a widely accepted piece in the cold chain for mostly smallholder dairy farmers. The solution accelerates the development of biogas technology through conversion of organic wastes to biogas. Biogas is used for milk pasteurization and cooling while the effluent from the biogas digester will be used as crop fertilizer. A membrane is used to recycle liquids in the slurry to reduce water demand that is crucial and a limiting resource for biogas production that leads to their abandonment in a short period of time.

The rural smallholder dairy farmer who not access electricity benefits; with our solution, we are able to more than double our milk productivity and income by delivering both evening milk and morning milk to the collection cooperative centre. Smallholder dairy farmers with 10-30 dairy cows living in rural areas are targeted due to economies of large scale accrued and benefit most from the biogas-powered milk cooler. These benefit by increasing their income from evening milk and save time and money on milk transport. For dairy cooperatives and processors our idea leads to more and higher quality milk collected. The cooperative reduces the risk of bulked milk rejection by the dairy processor, while the processor increases its sales of high value dairy products, like cheese.

The milk cooler is a piece in the cold chain entirely benefiting stakeholders to provide the highest quantity and quality of raw milk. Every evening, farmers put their churn with fresh milk into the chiller, which cools it down fast, delivered and sold to the dairy cooperative the next morning. Dairy cooperatives collect more milk, attract more members, and can meet supply targets set by processors. Processors receive more milk at consistent volumes, enabling them to meet consumers’ increasing demand. The solution is also an excellent intervention in three sustainability challenges of deforestation, indoor air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.

There are no alternative solutions that are available at this scale that cool milk fast enough to keep its quality (FAO/GIZ, 2018). Refrigerators cool 21x slower, electric chillers require reliable electricity, which is not there in rural East Africa (UNDP, 2016). We cater to farmers with 10 - 30 cows but the solution can also be viable with even 2 -10 cows. We use biogas. We have proved that daily cooling & cooking on biogas is feasible and by partnering smallholder dairy farmers and cooperatives, we enable farmers to pay with milk money.

Our solution is powered by Biogas technology built on a circular concrete base using clay bricks. The sides curve inwards to form a dome where the biogas collects and is stored. The outer walls of the digester are protected by plastering the outside walls. A neck is built onto the dome which is sealed by a cover to prevent gas leakage. This cover can be removed to conduct maintenance on the digester. The digester is plastered inside with water-proof cement to make it gas-tight and to prevent leakage of effluent. The outside of the dome is well plastered and the excavation site back-filled with soil and then landscaped. The continuous input of organic waste and the biogas pressure will push the effluent out of the Biogas-Digester into the Expansion Chamber. Some of the Bio-Slurry in the expansion chamber will move back into the digester for further digestion to optimize biogas production. The rest will flow into the Slurry Storage Tank, where it can be stored safely and used when needed. The gas will be tapped from the neck of the digester and piped underground to the milk pasteurization unit, which is a couple of meters away from the digester site.

One of our consortium team member Green Heat Uganda Ltd with a grant from USADF successfully piloted subsidized biogas system with 15 of them receiving fridges providing a step toward the solution and made it applicable to milk cooling among Ugandan smallholder dairy farmers and it received a very favourable response. The cooler was designed for cooling a maximum 10 litres, however, our field experience is suggesting that there is a need for higher capacity (e.g., 50-100 litres) for smallholder farmers with a larger number of cattle (e.g., over 10 cows). Also, the larger capacity cooler will meet the needs of smallholder dairy farmers for whom the availability of on-farm cooling is likely to increase incomes and enable the farmers to expand their herd. The current cooler design is operable by biogas. Higher capacity coolers (50-100 litres) can also be powered by biogas (i.e., scaling-up the current technology). As the biogas- digester proved a profitable venture, 4 of the first 5 customers used the fridge to expand their business activities, by adding more cows. The other 16 farmers increased their income by milking twice a day. This later inspired more 10 more farmers to order for a system and 23 farmers from western Uganda have shown interest. 

By providing rural smallholder dairy farmers with the ability to transform organic wastes into biogas and using this biogas to provide milk-cooling in off-grid areas, this project will improve their economic livelihoods by enhancement of milk preservation and provision of cooking energy, while increasing agricultural productivity and sustainability, and contributing to better sanitation. Furthermore, it contributes to sustainable milk supply chains in reducing losses due post-harvest handling, thus leading to a rural dairy transformation. The project’s theory of change considers that in order to motivate smallholder farmers to participate effectively in the project, there is a need to work differently, leveraging renewable technology, modernizing agricultural practices and creating incentives for smallholders to participate. The project design therefore envisages providing alternative pathways for creating on-farm off-grid milk dairy cooling opportunities within the broader rural dairy economy. Against this background, the project’s theory of change is oriented by three strategic priorities: (i) building an efficient dairy value chain from producer to consumer; (ii) increasing on-farm productivity; and, (iii) supporting an enabling policy and institutional environment for dairy growth. Finally, the project will build on the previous achievement by one of the consortium team member (Green Heat Ltd).

We prefer to target dairy farmer groups. These include smallholder farmers who are either actively producing milk for the market, looking to access milk marketing opportunities or looking to start dairy farming. It also includes entrepreneurs – particularly women and youth – and other groups such as traders, processors, milk shops and farmer organizations (FOs). The project direct target group comprises about 2,500 smallholders, with women representing 30% of the target group and youth 20% in the next five years with an aim of leaving no one behind:

• poor, mixed-farming households with small-scale semi-intensive dairy production, owning 1-3 dairy cows;

·         poor, mixed-farming households with medium-scale intensive dairy production, owning 3-7 dairy cows;

·         non-dairy-producer rural women, who will benefit from new economic opportunities (e.g. cottage dairy processing);

·         very poor, young farm assistants, aged 15 to 24;

·         very poor households without dairy cattle, including very poor agro pastoralists with small traditional herds, and the most vulnerable segments of the communities with no livestock assets;

·         a pilot group of very poor youth with no livestock or access to financial services, but with potential access to communal land; and

·         other rural non-producers (transporters, processors, traders, seed producers, input suppliers and school children).

1.     Currently 25 people

2.     Within a year with this fund awarded and another one from the UDAID DIV, an additional 300 households comprising approximately 2,800 people (7 per HH).

• In 5 – year 2,200 households comprising 15,000 people  

Within the next year, the goal will be to “enhanced income generation, job creation and greening economy through: (i) awareness creation in regard to green energy technologies; (ii) capacity building on green energy generation, commercialization and utilization; and, (iii) green energy business growth and up-scaling. Within the next five years, the goal will be to “contribute to the creation of an inclusive modern, resilient, competitive dairy sector, which delivers dairy products to all Ugandans and other consumers in the region, improves rural and urban livelihoods, well-being and nutrition, and brings benefits to the economy as a whole realized depending on the achievement of the project development objective of increasing market opportunities and diversify sources of income from the quality, nutritious dairy products of smallholder dairy farmers participating in the value chain, thus enhancing consumption, nutrition and the climate resilience of rural livelihoods”.

Barrier 1: Level of interest is not enough for it to be commercially viable for small dairy farmers; Barrier 2: Livestock production does not increase as projected; Barrier 3: Dairy livestock production significantly exceeds projections and more large scale farmers show interest than expected; Barrier 4: Inadequate financing mechanisms and other incentives to facilitate investment in biogas to electricity; Barrier 5: Underdeveloped markets and suppliers of biogas related equipment and services because of high initial investment costs and lack of financial capacity to cover the initial investment.

Mitigation1: Different sizes of dairy farms are promoted; Mitigation 2: Focus on existing dairy farmers not just future farmers; Mitigation 3: Investigate and strategize for large scale biogas at large dairy farms; Mitigation 4: Though the development of formal credit program with financial institution may take time to develop and may not be able to be implemented under this project, it will be developed with a long term view to up-scale in many other farming areas; and, Mitigation 5: Promotion, awareness and marketing activities are at the forefront.

The team is a mixture of professionals from civil society organisations and privately owned companies as well as public entities. We have trained mason that are on our programs when they are secured. The exact number can not be quantified now.

Our team represent a generation of social entrepreneurs that believe in international collaboration. Joseph Mutaaya is the founder and CEO of RYPE since 2006. He has gained experience in development proposal writing who recent designed an R&I 4,000,000, Euro research proposal to the EU ACP in collaboration with PELUM Uganda (lead applicant), MUK, Nelson Mandera University (Tz) and University of Eldoret (Kenya). He will be a point of contact for internal and external issues and responsibility for the administrative and financial management of the project as detailed in the Grant Agreement.

Prof. Noble Banadda is Head of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at MUK with a trailblazing scientific career whose research focus areas are in the bioprocessing engineering field and mathematic modeling of biological systems and interactions; with a goal of creating value-added products from solid biowaste resources. He will be responsible for defining strategic priorities, review and monitor progress made and agree on the actions for the next year.

Dr. Vianney Tumwesige is the MD Green Heat (U) Ltd offers innovative and cost-effective, one-stop-waste management solutions at the source of generation. Green Heat provides a commercially viable alternative fuel, biogas, and briquette, while delivering onsite waste management services to the poor. He will be responsible for the management of the technical progress towards the objectives and deliverables of the project and exchange of results and knowledge between the work packages.

The project are implemented in conjunction with Makerere University (MUK) (Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE) headed by Prof. Noble Banadda who is our long-term partner in development with whom a number of collaborative research projects have been initiated. Green Heat (U) Ltd offers innovative and cost effective one-stop-waste management solutions at the source of generation. We have worked on a number of renewable projects since 2013 providing commercially viable alternative fuels, biogas and briquette, while delivering onsite waste management services to the poor. These innovations leverage waste as a resource, transforming a development hurdle to an investment opportunity. Grit Advocate USA, a 501c3 Youth Empowerment non-profit is one of our major partners since 2016 advancing the use of technology, innovation, and leadership as a pivotal piece in creating work and education opportunities for the poor. With Grit Advocate will be registered and hosted by RYPEI in Uganda. We collaborate with Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) through an MOU; providing a framework for cooperation and facilitating collaboration between the parties in areas of common interest. MAAIF’s obligation under the framework includes among other things; the facilitation of the availability of government extension staff at the district, provision of technical advice and the identification of similar representation at other levels to ensure appropriate liaison and dialogue with relevant ministerial departments or agencies, information sharing for effective coordination and collaboration, be supportive in policy guidance and supportive in RYPEI’s effort to secure projects financial support.

Our consortium uses a multipronged business model where the government or donor pays for services to farmers (the farmers getting free services, funded by the Ugandan government and a donor programme) on one hand or sometimes the community members pay a part of the cost of the services that the consortium provide.

The installed digesters are operated and maintained by our consortium till the farmers have paid up the installation costs. Institutions and households have to make an initial payment of 30% of the total cost of the biogas system. The balance i.e 70% is paid back in a period of 18 months. In this model, the project finances biogas installations costs with funds from the consortium grants and leveraged funds from other sources of award. A formal contract that indicates prices, repayment dates and amount is also signed. After completing the final payment for the digesters, the farmers own digesters. The consortium also signs a service contract with these farmers for technical backstopping.