With the increasing focus on climate change and India's declaration at the Glasgow Summit to cut its emissions to net zero by 2070, there is a clarion call within every industry to create a roadmap for mitigating carbon footprint. A study by FAO has found that 36% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in India originate from its agri-food systems. Further, 14.5% of all humancaused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from livestock supply chains. And scientific studies have indicated that adopting energy efficient technology in animal feeding and manure management could help the global livestock sector cut its emissions of greenhouse gases up to 30%. To address the issue of energy efficiency in livestock management, there is a growing emphasis on deploying technology to convert animal waste into bio-methane/biogas and generate wealth and energy from such waste. ' There have been several initiatives to find innovative solutions to help dairy farmers better manage and monetize the by-products of cattle dung. In this context, the National Dairy Development Board has been working closely with dairy cooperatives and women dairy farmers to provide support in the installation of digesters for biogas. Under NDDB's Manure Management Initiative, biogas plants are installed by the dairy farmers in their backyard for producing gas to be used as cooking fuel. The bio slurry produced from these biogas plants is primarily used by the farmers in their own field and surplus bio slurry gets sold to other farmers or converted into organic fertilisers. It is noteworthy that Mujkuva Sakhi Khad Sahakari Mandli is the country's first women led Manure Cooperative. The gradual proliferation of biogas plants has led to significant savings on cooking fuel expense. Additionally, the widespread adoption of these models will go a long way towards reducing the health hazards of kitchen smoke, mitigate the adverse impact on environment and provide an additional stream of income for dairy farmers.
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