From Livestock Waste to New Possibilities: How Biogas Is Helping Ferial Strengthen Her Family’s Livelihood
In northeastern Syria, drought, rising costs and fuel shortages have made rural life increasingly difficult. For Ferial, a biogas unit is helping her turn livestock waste into energy, fertilizer and new income.
In Tamneh, a small village in the Tel Hamis area of northeastern Syria, Ferial's cows and sheep now provide her family with more than milk and meat.
Their manure is fed into a biogas unit, producing gas for cooking and heating. The process also generates organic fertilizer that the family uses on its land.
For Ferial, 40, a farmer and mother, the system has become part of a wider effort to keep her family's livelihood going in a region where drought, economic hardship and rising energy costs have made farming increasingly difficult.
For years, Ferial and her husband relied mainly on rain-fed agriculture. But repeated droughts reduced their harvests and weakened the family's income. They increasingly turned to livestock, raising cows and sheep to supplement their food and earnings.
At the same time, the cost and availability of fuel became another burden. A large share of the family's limited income was going towards cooking and heating, leaving less for food, healthcare, education and other essential needs.
In 2025, Ferial received a biogas unit through a European Union-funded initiative supporting early recovery, sustainable livelihoods and resilience in northeastern Syria.
The system uses livestock manure to produce approximately four hours of gas each day. The family uses it for cooking, heating water and, during winter, heating their home.
For Ferial, the benefits soon extended beyond household energy.
Ferial explains, “Today, I can prepare meals for my children safely without relying on traditional fuels such as kerosene, which can be harmful to both health and the environment. I also use the biogas to boil the milk produced by our cows and process it into dairy products that I sell in the local market.”
The biogas has allowed Ferial to make greater use of what her family already has: livestock. By using gas to process milk into dairy products for sale, she has created an additional opportunity to earn income while reducing the family's dependence on purchased fuel.
What the fields gained
The benefits extend beyond the kitchen.
The biogas process also produces organic fertilizer, which Ferial began using in her vineyard. Ferial says, “I have been growing grapes for many years, but after using the organic fertilizer produced by the biogas unit, I noticed a clear improvement in production. Last season, each tree produced around 10 kilograms more than usual, and this season the increase reached nearly 20 kilograms per tree.”
Encouraged by the results, Ferial's husband has also begun applying the organic fertilizer to their vegetable crops and cotton fields. For the family, this has reduced their reliance on costly chemical fertilizers while helping improve soil quality and agricultural productivity.
The system has also changed how the family manages livestock waste. Instead of allowing manure to accumulate around the household, they now collect it and use it to produce energy and fertilizer.
She explains, “The unit has helped us keep our surroundings cleaner by safely utilizing animal waste. We no longer face the same problems with unpleasant odors and insects, and our home environment has become healthier for our children.”
For Ferial, the value of the system lies in this cycle: livestock waste becomes energy, and the by-product of that process returns to the land as fertilizer.
A solution that travels
Ferial has gradually learned how to operate and maintain the system and now shares her experience with other beneficiaries and neighbours.
When she has more gas than her family needs, she sometimes invites neighbours to use her stove.
The technology has therefore become more than a household asset. It has also created an opportunity for Ferial to share practical knowledge with others in her community.
Ferial's experience shows how one livelihood intervention can address several pressures at once. The biogas unit has reduced household energy costs, created an opportunity to generate income from dairy products, improved agricultural production and provided a productive way to manage livestock waste.
For a family facing drought, rising costs and economic uncertainty, these combined benefits offer more ways to produce, earn and adapt when one source of income or one resource becomes unreliable.
Supported by the European Union, the intervention forms part of broader efforts to support early recovery, strengthen rural livelihoods and build resilience in communities across northeastern Syria.
For Ferial, however, its impact is experienced in practical terms: less money spent on fuel, greater use of what her livestock produces, improved agricultural production and a cleaner environment for her family.
The challenges facing her family have not disappeared. The drought continues, and economic uncertainty remains.
But the biogas unit has given them another way to respond.
What was once waste is now energy, fertilizer and income.
