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A German NGO is lending a hand to cut energy costs. By Walailak Keeratipipatpong
Rising fuel costs have done great damage to the earnings of shrimp farmers but Kulkanya Greemontri hopes her participation in an energy-efficiency programme will help cut her expenses substantially in the future.
Last year, Mrs Kulkanya and her husband Vichai registered their shrimp-farming company, Rien Thong Farm, under the Energy and Eco-Efficiency in Agro-Industry Project (E3Agro). The programme is a co-operative venture between the Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency Department and German Technical Co-operation (GTZ), a non-governmental organisation that deals with improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises.
The couple, who run shrimp farms in Chanthaburi, have followed the instructions of GTZ experts who allowed them to install equipment the agency designed such as the aeration system and a water-quality checking tool to lower energy costs.
''Although we saved only a little from the programme, its equipment helped us check the water quality in the pond more accurately,'' said Mrs Kulkanya.
Rien Thong Farm is among the 13 farms selected by GTZ for the E3Agro pilot project for shrimp farms.
''Water quality is very crucial in shrimp farming and the more accurate the values of dissolved oxygen and pH in the ponds, the higher the shrimp survival rate,'' she said.
According to the GTZ study, energy makes up 20% on average of the total cost of Thai shrimp farms, depending on shrimp intensity, the costs of fuels and electricity, farm management, and technology in use.
Small farms in remote areas normally use diesel engines for aerating and pumping water while large-scale farms use electricity as their energy source.
The soaring oil prices have increased the energy costs of shrimp farming to about 13 billion baht per year but under the programme, the agency expects to slash the cost by five billion baht.
Pijarana Samukana, project manager (E3Agro) of GTZ, said that shrimp raisers sometimes turned on aerators when they don't need to, use inappropriate motor drives, and overfeed their shrimp, resulting in higher costs.
Experimental studies revealed that electricity consumption at shrimp farms fell to 200 units per day, from 300 units before entering the programme.
GTZ, which has finished its pilot project this month, concluded that the pilot project showed the potential and possible measures of energy reduction in shrimp farms were to change motor drives and use aerators less often.
Energy is the second-largest cost of shrimp farming after feed.
Ms Pijarana said that the enhancing energy efficiency would also strengthen the competitiveness of Thailand's shrimp exports.
The German agency also provides support to improve market access for Thai shrimp in overseas markets. It plans to bring Sureerat Farm to explore the organic shrimp market in Europe in 2006.
Shrimp farming is one of the three farm sectors on the E3Agro programme, which started in 2004. The first pilot industry is palm oil, followed by the tapioca starch industry.
A total of 16 palm-oil plants joined the benchmark programme, which helped them reduce electricity consumption by 9% on average and steam consumption by 11%. Oil losses have been reduced by 11% and the participating mills also earned an additional 60 million baht in income from selling electricity from biogas plants during the project implementation.
For the tapioca starch industry, six native starch factories have joined the E3-Agro programme since June last year, and the activities could reduce starch loss in pulp and electricity consumption in the production process by 13.78% and 5.25% respectively. This translates into 16.4 million baht savings so far for the participating native starch factories.
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