January 21, 2025

Thai partners and GIZ establish a workplan to reduce rice and sugarcane residue burning

Activities, News and Events, TGC EMC Biomass

Story and Photos: Biomass Team/GIZ Thailand

A total of 15 local public partners from Thailand’s central province of Nakhon Sawan, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) came together for an Operational Planning workshop of the Thai-German Cooperation on Energy, Mobility and Climate (TGC EMC) Biomass Component to jointly plan activities for Year 2025.

The workshop comprised one out of four intended project outcomes contributing to a sustainable transition in Thailand’s energy sector: the pilot area project in Nakhon Sawan. The high potential and agricultural resources as well as the readiness of the political partners led to the selection of Nakhon Sawan for the pilot project.

Nakhon Sawan has been selected as a pilot area for TGC EMC Biomass because it has a total of 4.71 million rai-economic crop cultivated areas. The ratio of rice and sugarcane cultivated areas is high at 51% and 16% respectively compared to another economic crops. There are seven biomass powerplants located in the province. The project sees a potential to connect the province’s biomass industry with others in nearby provinces. However, agricultural burning issues are still present with many high spots reported during the post-harvest season, TGC EMC Biomass project aims to support local governmental partners in order to mitigate open burning issues and provide feasible alternative solutions for farmers.

Welcoming Remarks by Mr Badin Kasemsarn, Nakhon Sawan Vice Governor and Report Speech by Mr Natthakit Ratthasinpokin, Director of Nakhon Sawan Provincial Energy

Nakhon Sawan Vice Governor Mr Badin Kasemsarn reaffirmed the commitment of the partners on behalf of the governmental sector and the private sector to support GIZ in achieving the common target. “The project has the potential to contribute to a better livelihood for everyone and to the countries’ mitigation effort at the same time, so that ultimately, Thailand can achieve carbon neutrality,” he said.

Mr Natthakit Ratthasinpokin, Director of Nakhon Sawan Provincial Energy gave a report, saying: “The aim of the project is to reduce open burning of rice straw and stubble as well as sugarcane leaves so that air pollution is reduced while farmers have an additional source of income.”

The TGC EMC Biomass Component intends to increase the use of renewable energy from agricultural residues by enabling the collection and processing of rice straw and stubble as well as sugarcane leaves for their use in biomass power plants. The burning of these residues causes PM 2.5 pollution, which could increase carbon emission, health risks and lead to losses of productivity capacity in Thailand’s agricultural sector.

The one-day workshop was aimed at laying the foundation for the project work of the year ahead. Therefore, the project team first reported on the progress for the year 2024, allowing for reflection of previous achievements, followed by some technical inputs, before moving into lively discussions on a timeline and the most important steps of the project implementation for the year 2025. The workshop will be repeated yearly to align activities and expectations with all cooperation partners. The participation of the local offices is highly valued as an essential part of adapting the project implementation into the local context.

Activities in 2024 included the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the overall TGC EMC project, the official launch of the TGC EMC Biomass project in Nakhon Sawan, the establishment of a committee and working group for the project, field visits to farmers, collection centres and biomass power plants. Furthermore, in order to change the public perspective on the value of rice stubble, an exhibition to show its use was organized.

Studies related to the project are presented by the experts in each field. Assoc Prof Dr Nipon Poapongsakorn, distinguished fellow from Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) presented the behavioral study on rice and sugarcane farmers which intends to develop policy recommendations supporting open burning reduction. Dr Nittaya Cha-un, KMUTT expert in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture sector, presented the topic of training curriculum used in the project. Assoc Prof Dr Suneerat Fukuda from KMUTT’s Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environmentpresented the following three studies related to the project:1) Identifying suitable location for Collection Center Facilities (CCF) using Geo-Spatial Database, 2) Business model and 3) Laboratory test in sugar factory boilers.

Group discussions were also arranged so that participants can share their views and thoughts. Project staff collect will then consolidate their inputs into the four key aspect of project indicators, training topics, selection of target areas and business models, essential for next year’s project planning.

At the end of the workshop, Ms Lisa Faust, TGC EMC Biomass Project Lead, summarised the workplan for year 2025 would focus on developing the training manuals, indicators, finalising the selection of a suitable site for the pilot project as well as selecting the business model with the highest viability. Mr Mongkon Duangkhiew, senior field advisor, said the project also planned to complete training materials by June 2025. Training activities for the first group of farmers by year end.■