1. Biomass is playing an important role for daily energy needs of rural households in Bangladesh. The biomass (such as, tree twigs, leaves, firewood, crop residues, jute sticks, rice husk, rice straw, sawdust, cowdung etc.) constitutes about 60% of total energy consumption in rural areas of Bangladesh. The threat the country is facing requires concerted effort in the line of motivation, public awareness and exploration into indigenous and alternative renewable energy resources.
2. The potential biomass availability in the study areas is about 291.47 GJ/yr-household of which the share of field crop biomass is about 229.61 GJ/yr-household. Crops like corn should be grown in large quantities, which produce a vast amount of energy. These perennial crops require less maintenance and fewer inputs than do annual row crops, so they are cheaper and more sustainable to produce. Fast growing plants like Dhaincha, Eucalyptus, Epil-Epil, Bogamedula, etc. May also be planted. Government may undertake special measures for motivating the owners of the rural industries like brickfield, chatal, etc. to plant trees in one fourth area of their industry complex. Apart from environmental protection, this will ensure an increase in the supply of tree residues, which can be used as fuel purposes.
3. The homestead energy use includes the energy for cooking parboiling, room heating and smoking in cowshed and for lighting purposes. The average homestead energy consumption is 91.41 GJ/Yr-household. Homestead energy use is almost same for large and medium farmer where as it decrease for small and landless farmers accordingly. Energy use is maximum for cooking which accounts 64.34 GJ/Yrhousehold. Energy use for parboiling increases with the increase in size of the farm holdings. For landless farmers it is 4.40 GJ/Yr-household because of smaller agricultural production, where as, it is 15.64 GJ/Yr-household for the large farm holdings.
4. The overall efficiency in traditional use of biomass is only about 5-15%. It is argued that Bangladesh is in a favorable position in respect of the climatic conditions and availability of the raw materials for biogas production. In Bangladesh there are about 22 billion of cattle which excretes 0.22 million tons of dung per day. This can produce an average 2.72Gm3 of biogas/year, which is equivalent to 1.52 Mt of Kerosene. With this amount of gas about 20% to the total household energy need can be met. Therefore, technology for generation of biogas from biomass needs to be standardized and encouraged for dissemination at rural household levels in Bangladesh.
5. Areas, where piped natural gas supply is not available, biogas production is unquestionably beneficial to the rural households. The economic analysis on RDA biogas plant proved that biogas supply to household provided benefit of Taka 216.85 per month over use of LP gas. On the other hand, the rural households can earn a handsome amount of money by selling manure as byproduct from the biogas plant (RDA biogas plant earns Taka 1,22,400 per month by selling manure). Therefore, construction of biogas plant at rural households’ level needs to be encouraged for better utilization of biomass.
6. Energy saving technologies should be encouraged for efficient use of available biomass in the country. Improved cooking stoves are such efficient devices. The rural people specially the woman should be trained for the construction and maintenance of the improved–cooking stoves.
7. Many rural households may need financial support for installation of biogas plant. Small, medium or large farmers may be encouraged to install biogas plant in their premises. Initially, government in collaboration with the community can install some demonstration plants in some selected areas to disseminate the idea. Joint effort may be encouraged for this purpose.