In addition to biogas for domestic energy, biogas digesters also producea byproduct called bioslurry which is high-quality organic manure. Ritma Green encourages its biogas users to apply the bioslurry at their farmers or even sell it. One of our users finds the opportunity to process it further to be compost and foliar fertilizer. In 2013, Ritma Green constructed biogas at Amir Badawi’s house whose farmer group, KT Waji Mandiri, just won a competition for cattle breeding. A local bank then granted the group biogas digester together with bioslurry processing facilities as the prize. Not simply constructing the facility, Ritma Green also assisted in formulating the bioslurry to be compost and foliar fertilizers, carrying out some field experiments, and facilitating laboratory tests for organic content and efficacy. The group began to sell the products to local markets as they didn’t yet have a trade permit. They started to make money but the business didn’t grow fast since trade permit takes time and money to get. In 2017, an investor came to join the business which enabled it to run more professionally by a small joint company called Mandiri Massadidu. The company then applied to obtain the trade permit which later was obtained a year later under a commercial brand named Bio M2. To get raw materials for their products, they began to routinely buy bioslurry from 5 biogas users close to their processing facility in Waji village, sub-district of Tellu Siattinge, Bone district, South Sulawesi province. The biogas users nearby are now receiving extra income from the biogas’ byproduct – something they never imagine before.
To increase production capacity, last year, the company constructed another biogas and bioslurry processing facility in different sub-district as they get a foliar fertilizer contract from the Ministry of Agriculture. Of course, with Ritma Green’s assistance. They’re now able to sell 10 tons of foliar fertilizer per month employing 3 permanent staff and tens of daily workers who are mostly women for formulating, bottling, and packaging. Ritma Green will always try to serve other benefits to its biogas users to invest in renewable energy technology interesting to candidate users and financial institutions. Again, to solve two classic problems in small-scale renewable energy deployment – high upfront cost and poor maintenance.