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SKG Sangha uses local masons to build a biogas plant in Bidadi, South India.

Although the state of Karnataka in South India has thriving, affluent cities like Bangalore, most of the rural population are subsistence farmers, growing rice, millet, vegetables and coconuts in the monsoon-watered land. The main fuel for cooking is firewood, which is becoming increasingly scarce and is hugely time consuming to collect. Indoor air pollution as a result of firewood use is responsible for the high incidence of respiratory and eye problems suffered mainly by women and children.

In 1993, moved by his own experience of watching his mother cook on an open fire and suffer from itchy eyes and a bad cough, Mr D. Vidya Sagar set up SKG Sangha with the express aim of providing rural women in Karnataka with an alternative energy source to firewood for cooking. After researching available options, Vidya Sagar chose the 'Deenbandu' cow dung based biogas plant as the most reliable and cheapest alternative and, with the help of a bank loan, began building and supplying these plants to rural households.

Since 1993 SKG Sangha has installed over 43,000 of these biogas plants, which is the highest number of plants installed by a single organisation, certainly in India and probably in most other parts of the world as well.

The benefits of biogas plants are well known. By using readily available cow dung women save significant time otherwise spent collecting wood and cooking. Children get to eat a proper breakfast before walking up to three hours to get to school. Women suffer less respiratory diseases and eye infections due to the reduction in indoor air pollution. As a woman from Mallipatna says: "We have many benefits from biogas. With wood, our hands used to itch when we cleaned off the soot from the pots, our eyes had tears, our chests were painful and we coughed a lot. We had headaches and we had sight problems. With biogas, all these problems are gone."

Mrs Munithayamamma from Siradhanahalli village adds: "I have four cows so I get good gas, so I do not need to collect firewood. I save a lot time not collecting the wood and not washing soot from the pans and in cooking. I can spend more time on my own farm and working for other people."

The environmental benefits are also significant - each of the 43,000 plants installed by SKGS, save about 4 tonnes/year of CO₂ and around 3.5 tonnes/year of fuel wood.

However, SKGS's scheme goes much further than the simple production of biogas for cooking. Under the leadership of Vidya Sagar, SKGS has devised an innovative way of using the slurry produced by the biogas plant as an effective fertiliser that has the added benefit of earning rural women a good income. As one women villager puts it: "The vermicompost gives a better rice crop; the money we earn helps us educate the children."

SKGS's vermi-composting system involves mixing the slurry with solid waste (straw, green and dried leaves) and then leaving it to compost for 25 days. The mix is then placed in a container with earthworms, which produces a high quality fertiliser for which people will pay Rs90 (£1) for a 30kg bag. The fertiliser increases grain crop (rice and ragi) yields by 20% and increases the resistance of crops to pests and diseases.

"I make 200 bags of vermiculture manure a year and sell about half. I earn Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 from these sales. When I use the manure on my crops the production is increased. I now get 12 bags of ladies fingers a week instead of 10. There is no increase in the ginger crop, but the flavour and quality is improved so we get a better price. We make 'golden manure'." Mrs Rukimini, Siradhanahalli.

Mr Jadasesh, one of Mrs Rukimi's customers, adds: "I want to buy 10 quintals (1,000 kg) of [vermicompost] manure for my coconut and betel nut trees. It improves my crop. I tested it on a few trees and found it stops the drop of immature nuts. So, now I want to buy as much manure as possible. There are many people who want to buy this manure."

SKGS's vermicomposting system not only provides women with a good income it also makes use of agricultural waste that is otherwise left in the rain and sun producing run-off which contaminates ground water, and methane which is released into the atmosphere. Dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides is reduced which saves money, improves the quality of the soil and the quality of food. The steady income provided by the plant also allows rural women to get small loans for the first time.

Around 60% of the cost of the installation is paid for by government subsidies for biogas and the rest is provided through payment in kind, in labour and in the supply of materials.

SKGS's emphasis on using and training locals in the building, installing and maintenance of the plants is key to the success of the scheme, ensuring the long term reliability of the plants and creating employment. More than 1,000 masons have been trained so far and unemployed youth have been trained to become technicians or supervisors operating and maintaining the plants which prevents their migration to the cities. Both men and women are trained as maintenance technicians.

SKGS's programme is highly replicable in that the vermicomposting system can be added to any biogas system in India. It could also be a model for places like Africa where the cash benefits may make the use of biogas more attractive for poor rural communities.

Ashden Award money will be used to publicise the benefits of their scheme and to pilot plant tests on a new range of biogas technology using food and sugar waste.