Identification of Context-Specific Knowledge as a Tool for Biogas Facilitators and Their Quality Involvement—Using Vietnamese Practice as an Example

Hynek Roubík,Jana Mazancová

doi:10.3390/en12071326

Abstract

In Central Vietnam, two key actors are involved in the extension performance of biogas technology: The owners of biogas plants and facilitators. Facilitators as the immediate providers of advice and services are in direct contact with local farmers and belong to the Vietnamese national extension network. This paper aims at identifying the current state of extension services and creating proper recommendations for further processes of training in the target area through the identification of context-specific knowledge (CSK). CSK can serve as a tool for facilitators and their quality involvement and for the improvement of current training practices in the area. It also provides performance indicators (PIs) for facilitators’ quality assessments. PIs should be consistent parts of the educational process for the evaluation of knowledge transmission success. More research in terms of facilitator’s impacts on the knowledge transition process towards the biogas owners should be done to prove the sustainability of the extension services.

Highlights

Energy is an indispensable part of daily life and with environmental issues, it has become the most important problem of common concern
Current increasing energy consumption in rural areas of Central Vietnam can be covered by use of family-size biogas technology and can lead to healthier and more sustainable ways of living [2]
Biogas produced via the anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic waste materials is considered as an important technology for improving the environment because it solves waste management problems and simultaneously produces biogas as a main product and digestate as a by-product, which can be used as fertilizer [2,3,4]

Summary

Introduction

Energy is an indispensable part of daily life and with environmental issues, it has become the most important problem of common concern. When training improvements are incorporated, there is need for establishing accurate measurements and indicators, which are vital to the process of evaluation. Successful indicators of facilitators’ performances rely on information to evaluate the results. When the facilitator (within the CSK involved) provides appropriate trainings and knowledge transmission to a farmer, the farmers’ satisfaction, availability, appropriate trainings and knowledge transmission to a farmer, the farmers’ satisfaction, availability, and service usefulness should be evaluated retrospectively. This information should be collected and service usefulness should be evaluated retrospectively. This information should be collected by by a controlling body (AFFEC, Commune, BPAHS) together with information about the farmers’

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion