Role of improved stoves in rural energy management and environmental protection

Ethiopia (Horn of Africa) is one of the poorest sub-Saharan Countries, facing several problems of agricultural stagnation, high population growth rate and degradation of natural resource base. Deforestation is perhaps the most form of degradation in the world and also throughout Ethiopia. Its coverage of foress was 40% during nineties and less than 3% today. Fuel wood demand for Ethiopia is around 58 million m³ per year while sustainable supply is only 11 million m³. Vast majority of rural households use the traditional three stone fire to bake “Injera” and an average use of 1.2 ton fuel wood per year for family. To overcome the environmental issues linked with deforestation, improved fuel saving stoves are introduced and distributed by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Deutsche Gessillschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit. It has the impact on house holds’ energy efficiency and saving natural resources, economy environment, house hold income, quality of life, health and gender equity.

Though different studies have been undertaken in different parts of the country to asses the efficiency of these stoves, dearth of studies in Northern Ethiopia. Hence this paper focus on the effectiveness of improved stove in biomass saving, time saving and the impact on income generation and health of women and children in rural areas. The study has been carried out in one district (Endreta) of Tigray region with randomly selected 100 households who are using the improved stoves. Both secondary and primary data have been used for analysis and discussion. The collected information has been analysed with simple tools and presented in line with economic improvement, addressing HIV/AIDS, attaining Millennium Development Goals and environment sustainability. The results reveal that the using of improved stove has an impact among the rural households in line with the Millennium Development Goals. The results & the recommendations forwarded in the paper may help the concern body to formulate suitable policies to manage the resources in general and rural energy for environmental protection in particular.