Source: IRENA
Communities living in the mountainous areas of the HKH region rely primarily on agriculture and livestock for food security and livelihoods. Tackling poverty in mountainous areas, where poverty rates are generally higher than in plain areas, requires more attention to increasing the incomes of these communities. There is also an urgent need to strengthen the resilience of smallholder livelihoods, which are increasingly exposed to the impacts of climate change. Access to reliable and affordable energy is a critical infrastructure input for increasing agricultural productivity, reducing losses and capturing value-added opportunities through improved processing and market access. Best practices have been used to improve processes within the food value chain, providing power to run efficient appliances increases productivity and generates income.
The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is home to three of the highest mountain ranges in the world – Hindu Kush, Karakorum and Himalayas – and is known for its beauty and unique ecological environment. The region is also one of the most vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather conditions, with communities living in difficult and inaccessible terrain and harsh living conditions. This region stretches over 3,500 kilometers of him and includes eight countries in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan). The mountainous areas of these eight HKH countries are home to 9% of the total population of these countries.
The use of distributed renewable energy solutions, especially solar power, is restricted in the HKH region. This is mainly due to the ineffective design of PV systems, the lack of livelihood links in previously designed PV programs, and the lack of packaged solutions with effective financing and supply chains. This is due to the lack of However, the region’s largest source of energy is hydropower, much of it small run-of-river hydropower. Small-scale and micro-hydropower are defined as distributed renewable energies, but these technologies have met with limited success in the context of target communities located in hilly and highlands.
The region’s remoteness, low population density, difficult topography, and seasonal hydrological variations do not allow for the effective and distributed use of micro-hydropower plants.
Most of the innovation in the agri-food sector is concentrated in industrial-scale centralized facilities. However, the benefits of such facilities to rural and marginalized communities are limited. To provide solutions to these communities, innovation must be decentralized to local conditions. Such innovations need to diversify, focusing not only on technology, but also on ownership, financial, supply chain and service delivery models that enable sustainable impact through the design and deployment of technology.
These missing ecological factors need to be catalyzed and enhanced to demonstrate the link between sustainable energy and development. Thus demonstrating the ability of distributed energy to transform communities. While the potential for improving and decentralizing agricultural value chains through energy is enormous, financing remains a scaling barrier. All aspects of the ecosystem must be developed so that each solution is a self-sustaining, long-term investment.
Various sectors of the ecosystem must be in place to address value chain concerns and ensure that solutions are long-term and self-sustaining. Key parts of the ecosystem include:
Below are the technical/commercial solutions proposed for each of these value chain processes?
Input – Forage Management: Yaks prefer to graze where there is grass. In months when the grass is not available, straw and hay can be chopped into small pieces using a mechanical chopper and mixed with other grasses to feed the yaks. Cutting crop residues increases feed consumption and palatability and reduce waste.
Production – Shelter and Milking Machine: A solar home lighting system provides illumination during the early morning milking of the yaks. Usually, it does it once a day. Two lights with mobile chargers are enough for a small cabin.
Since most yak milking is done manually, a portable machine can save labour. This is an efficient way of milking small herds or sick animals when the use of static milkers is restricted (e.g. farm or barn milking) or in remote pens. You can check whether the degree of vacuum and the pulse pattern match. Portable milking machines usually have one or two clusters. For one farmer he can recommend one cluster because the yaks are milked infrequently.
Pickup and Retail – Solar Powered Milk Inspection and Weighing Machines, Bulk Milk Coolers: If a yak milk cooperative is established to collect milk from each farmer, this could be a future project. Milk inspection and weighing are a key steps in this process.
In addition, a solar-powered milk cooling system can be installed for local use. Approximately 12 to 50 farmers can be connected to each milk liquid chiller, depending on the chiller capacity. This device cools milk from 350 degrees Celsius (°C) to 40°C and ensures that the milk remains at the desired temperature (40°C) until it reaches the dairy product.
Processing – Solar Powered Butter Churn & Electric Cream Separator: Solar Powered Butter Churn is a low-cost, one-stop solution to your mountain mixing, stirring and chopping problems. Effort can be further reduced by offering an electric cream separator with a 0.25 horsepower
Alternating current (AC) single-phase motors. Yak milk production fluctuates between 200 and 500 litres during a six-month lactation cycle (depending on location and breed), so yak butter churns capable of handling about 20 litres of milk at a time are required. Suitable for Pastoral households or small businesses.
The use of yak dung as a cooking fuel: A yak produces three to four times its own weight in dung each year. It is a valuable heat source and is primarily used as a cooking and heating fuel. Manure is used in gypsum, fertilizer, and construction, and is sometimes traded and sold. The Dung Wood Machine produces long sticks of cow dung that can be used as fuel. These machines are available in single and three phases in various capacities. The main challenge in the
Yak value chain is the lack of dairy equipment such as refrigerated display cases and vacuum packing machines.
In the HKH region, where societies are heavily dependent on agriculture, food production is generally adversely affected by changes in monsoon timing and duration, increased rainfall variability, and increased extreme events such as floods and droughts. Building resilience and adaptability to changes induced by climate impacts is essential, including through climate-friendly agriculture with improved irrigation, agricultural biodiversity and the use of resilient crop varieties. In addition, changes in the water environment, extreme climate events, and potential impacts on ecosystems should be taken into account in energy sector policies and planning.
Looking beyond mitigation, solar solutions help mountain communities build resilience and adapt as they deal with the growing impacts of climate disasters. The recommendations below cover four overarching factors – policy, regulation, capacity building and financial support – that are shown to promote and expand the use of renewable energy.
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