Some 17,500 rural households will be equipped with eco-friendly bio-digesters, which convert agricultural waste into cooking gas, English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh Post said on Tuesday.

    "We hope this bio-digester will benefit not only households, but the agricultural sector as a whole because it can help reduce the rate of deforestation, and the waste left over will be used for natural fertilizer," Agricultural Minister Chan Sarun was quoted as saying.

    The ministry, in partnership with the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), began the National Bio-digester Program in 2005 and has installed 3,633 of planned bio-digesters so far.

    A Dutch finance company has provided 2 million U.S. dollars of low-interest loans for farmers to build bio-digester plants, each of which costs 200 to 1,000 U.S. dollars.

    A plant requires about 20 to 40 kilograms of animal dung daily and can supply energy for 5 to 6 hours of cooking and 12 to 15 hours of lighting every day.

    Bio-digesters can last over 20 years and allow farmers to recover their costs of construction in 16 to 24 months.