Kazakh farmers supported by financial grants

The experience of peasant farms of the Enbekshikazakh district in the use of renewable energy sources (RES) was presented to the public. For a year now, the Local Communities Foundation of the region has been implementing the project “Actions louder than a thousand words” in the country. Kazakh farmers are also involved in the work of the fund, World of NAN reports.

The Foundation is supported by the Small Grants Program 2021 (SGP) of the US Embassy in Kazakhstan. The project is aimed at solving the global problem of climate change at the local level and also solves the issue of lack of information about the benefits of using renewable energy sources in layman's terms. In Kazakhstan, there are many programs that talk about these benefits, but there are distressingly few projects that actually implement the use of renewable resources. As the initiators of the project said, in the course of the work, not only targeted research and development were carried out, substantiating the effectiveness of the practical use of renewable energy sources in specific local conditions, including in specific farms, but also real operating facilities were created.

“We welcome the efforts of Kazakhstan to fulfill all obligations of the Paris Agreement on combating climate change and are pleased to cooperate with governmental and non-governmental partners to solve a global problem. The “Actions Louder than a Thousand Words” project was one of the partnerships we selected last year as it promotes the use of renewable and sustainable energy sources in rural Kazakhstan and is a clear example of the benefits of renewable energy,” says Anand Krishna, Head of Public Relations at the US Consulate General in Kazakhstan.

Within the framework of the project, for which 62 applications were submitted, an information channel was created in social networks (@fms_abc_official, Facebook - Local Communities Foundation); conducted joint visits to farms with the scientific expert of the project to study the needs of farmers and the energy potential of Enbekshikazakh district.

Based on the results of the research, an Analytical Report on the Energy Potential of the District and a Map of Farmers' Needs for the Use of RES were developed.

On the basis of KazNU named after Al-Farabi a hackathon dedicated to developing technical solutions in the field of renewable energy with the participation of students from various specialties and universities was held in Almaty, who solved problems from the Map of Farmers' Needs. The hackathon participants proposed 15 technical solutions for the introduction of RES in peasant farms.

26 farmers took part in the project's experimental laboratory, which included training, experiments, calculations and practical exercises. The scientific expert of the project, together with the Local Communities Foundation, developed materials for training sessions, which include simple concepts about renewable energy, its types, sources, as well as their application and benefits.

“Farmers received a lot of useful information and knowledge in the field of renewable energy. They got acquainted and studied green energy technologies. The training sessions included practical exercises - technical and economic calculations and became a good basis for further practical steps towards the use of renewable energy," said Ruslan Utebayev, senior researcher at KazNU. Al-Farabi, candidate of technical sciences, scientific expert of the project "Action is louder than a thousand words".

The projects that received grants (financial support) for the installation of renewable energy sources were determined by the results of the competition held on March 18, 2022, for which 7 farmers submitted their works for competitive protection. Four winners were determined by the decision of the Competition Commission.

Among them are a network solar power plant with a capacity to heat a greenhouse for growing “green fodder” for poultry in the winter and power a residential building, autonomous, solar and network power plants to provide energy to a peasant economy and residential premises.

The winners' projects are supported by grants provided for by the SGP 2021 of the US Embassy in Kazakhstan, and at the moment, alternative energy sources have been introduced on all the winners' farms.

“Our experience with farmers shows that when they see a really working mechanism from a neighboring farmer, they see it as a benefit, then this technology spreads many times faster than if you just talk a lot about it. The implementation of specific cases, I hope, will become an incentive to pay attention to the benefits of renewable energy for other farmers in our region and will attract the attention of state bodies at the local and national levels to promote renewable energy sources among residents of rural regions,” said Bakytgul Yelchibayeva, Executive Director of the Public Foundation "Local Communities Foundation of Enbekshikazakh District".

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