Presently, most dairy farmers within the East Java milk district store manure outdoors, behind their barns or sheds. Adequate manure storage is a necessity to avoid environmental issues, among which contamination of groundwater and water sources. Improved storage practices also enable the use of manure as a valuable source of nutrients and as an environmentally friendly energy for domestic use.
Nestlé Indonesia is committed to the promotion of biogas technology through the provision of training and micro-loans that enable farmers to construct and maintain their own biogas units. Nestlé Indonesia supports two programmes which aim to improve awareness of the need for a better manure storage system, the Kejayan Biogas Project and the Renewable Energy Programme in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
While resulting in an improved livelihood among the dairy farming community, biogas technology reduces the risk of polluting streams and water sources by dairy farming activities.