| dc.description.abstract | A cross sectional study was carried out in Kisii District to
compare fuelwood consumption and food preparation patterns of
households using improved cookstoves with those using
traditional cookstoves. A sample of 196 households was
selected using multistage sampling from four purposively
selected sub-locations with the highest utilization of
improved cookstoves. A pretested questionnaire was
administered and a sub-sample of 120 households was observed.
Results show that improved cookstove households used
significantly less fuel than the traditional cookstove
households. Fuel saving increased with cooking time, hence,
the longer the cooking time, the higher the fuel saving.
Fuelwood was the cheapest fuel in the area, and most
households gathered the fuelwood from their farms, while six
percent exclusively purchased their fuelwood. A few households
supplemented fuelwood from the main source with collections
from roadside and neighbours' farms. Fuelwood was mainly
collected by women and children. It was found that the two
groups of households spent similar amounts of time per trip on
the collection of fuelwood, but improved cookstove households
collected fuelwood less frequently compared to the traditional
cookstove households.
There was no significant variations ln the food preparation
patterns between the two groups, implying that fuelwood
problem has not yet had significant impact on food preparation
patterns. Food preparation patterns were affected more by
availability of food and time for its preparation than by lack
of fuelwood. It was also established that longer duration
cooking dishes cooked faster on an improved cookstove while
shorter duration cooking dishes cooked faster on a traditional
cookstove.
In conclusion, use of improved cookstoves reduces· the demand
for fuelwood, and hence, not only saves time for other
activities, for instance, crop production, but also
contributes towards environmental conservation. It is
recommended that widespread dissemination of information and
accessibility to the improved cookstoves should be established
in order to plan for their increased use. | en |
