Clean cooking opportunities in Bundelkhand
Student name: Mr Nikhil
Guide: Dr Atul Kumar
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: Development Alternatives
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Mayuk Hajra
Abstract: In India around 70% of rural household use biomass as cooking fuel as per census 2011. Such high use of biomass for cooking led to critical health and environmental issues due to air pollutants like carbon monoxide, particulate matters etc. In the present scenario the issues need to be addressed with utmost priority and for that intervention of clean energy technologies for cooking (Like: Improved cookstoves, Biogas) is needed. In order to realize the potential of improved cook stoves government of India started several programme, which did not succeed. There are some resistances which do not allow these clean cooking technologies to sustain. This study applied a multi-phase approach for understanding user preferences for different improved cookstoves models to find the barrier in sustaining the technology. In the first phase, study locations and improved cook stoves models were identified .The second phase consisted of a household survey to gather basic information on household economics and traditional cooking practices. The survey was also used to identify households willing to participate in the subsequent user acceptance test. In this test three different improved cook stoves models were evaluated on different technical, economic and social parameters through an acceptance test of the community. And with this a pre-fabricated household level biogas plant was also taken as an alternative for the replacement of traditional cooking technologies and a pilot study was conducted for it. The study location was in Bundelkhand region, which is spread over two states of India Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh with highly varying socio-economic conditions. In this region maximum households are dependent on biomass as a source of the cooking fuel.
The major learning of this project were directly form user preference for the technologies. The user evaluate improved cook stoves not only on fuel consumption and smoke emission but also consider easy of operations ,flexibility in cooking ,aesthetics as an important parameter for improved cook stoves technology selection. There is also a gap between different stake holders of clean cooking sector which need to be address to sustain the technology at large scale. In case of Prefabricated –biogas household level plant, it was observed that the technology is feasible option in the rural area of Bundelkhand region, considering some skill requirement for system management
