Indigestion

Recently, I met a pig farming couple based near the M40. Pig farmers are struggling to survive with the recent increases in the price of grain and feedstock.

The opportunity they have of using pig slurry as part of the fuel for anaerobic digesters has been made all the more obvious to those who listen to Radio4’s The Archers where two of the main characters are investigating installing a digester on Home Farm.

The opportunity here in Oxford appears obvious. In Banbury, we have a number of food manufacturers; waste from which could be included in the fuel for the digesters.

The government is making enormous efforts to encourage the production of biofuel crops, providing financial supports. Energy Crops Scheme provides grants for establishing short rotation coppice and miscanthus under the new Rural Development Programme England (RDPE), which will run from 2007-2013 and planning (subject to EU approval):

• £1,000 per hectare for short rotation coppice
• £800 per hectare for miscanthus

But why is there no direct support for anaerobic digesters? This type of local energy generation should surely attract its own focused scheme? Asking DEFRA and the digesters companies themselves, and you are pointed to the diversification programme.

Look on DEFRAs website under grants for livestock farmers, and you will see the words “Scheme now closed” in most of them. The setting up of an anaerobic digester facility can cost millions, so how the pig farming community is expected to fund this is a mystery.

So come on, DEFRA, give the pig farmers a break – and help them survive and thrive by providing interest free loans – payable once the renewable energy starts to earn cash.