Economic contributions and synergies of biogas with the SDGs in Ethiopia

Domestic biogas technology helps to foster sustainable development in different ways. It is particularly important in countries like Ethiopia where about 80% of the population lives in rural areas, and more than 90% of the households use solid biomass for cooking. In light of this, the Government of Ethiopia has launched a National Biogas Programme in 2008. The Programme, now in its third phase, has successfully installed tens of thousands of biogas digesters. This paper aims to give a macroeconomic insight on the role of the biogas sector in Ethiopia. The annual gross value of biogas outputs reached USD 7.7 million in 2015/16. Installing biogas digesters contributes USD 1.4 million each year to the construction industry. Results of the study indicate that the micro and macroeconomic contributions of biogas sector partly rely on the effective utilization of its co-product (i.e., the slurry) as fertilizer. Agricultural policies of the country should therefore highlight and link domestic biogas production with the extension services.