ISLAMABAD - Pakistan can generate electricity from waste of vegetables and sugarcane to boost agriculture production and could save millions of rupee, CEO Harvest Tradings, Ahmad Jawad said.  He said nearly 70pc of the country’s rural population could easily benefit from biogas energy as those plants were low-cost and could be run with a small budget.The EU has legislated that each member country should be producing at least 22.1pc of their electricity from renewable resources in order to stick to the commitment of producing energy from best alternative sources.
One study points out that the renewable and sustainable energy resources are the best substitute to the conventional fuels and energy sources.
Jawad said in Pakistan, around 40 percent fruits and vegetables are wasted due to poor handling during harvesting, transportation and the lack of storage facilities. Fruit and vegetable waste are left behind during harvest, lying unused and unwanted in farm fields and processing plants. Not only does it literally go to waste, it often takes time and labour to get rid of it.
“But what if all that unused produce could be turned into energy?” Jawad asked. “To recycle urban wood and vegetative waste and our leftover sugarcane fiber, called bagasse, to produce clean, environmentally-friendly electricity.”
About 16 tons of vegetable waste and four tons of slaughterhouse waste will be used to generate 3,256 units of power a day through the bio-mechanisation process. Jawad urged that the country must utilise that technology for agriculture sector and rural areas.
“Thereby we can reduce the electricity bill of farmers who are required to pay heavy bills despite heavy load shedding with the duration of average 12 to 14 hours a day in villages,” he said.
Similarly power generation from sugar industry through biogas can help overcome the crisis, but it is hardly producing some 700 megawatt. He suggested that all sugar mills owners must work on it for the national cause to increase power generation from their mills and disburse electricity in their nearby towns and villages.