Abstract
Biogas is environmentally sound and economically viable, clean, and renewable energy source. Despite its numerous benefits and dissemination efforts, the adoption of biogas technology has been low. The objective of this study was to assess factors determining adoption of biogas technology as an alternative energy source at household level in Aleta Wondo district, southern Ethiopia. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select sample households. A total of 148 sample households, 51 biogas technology adopters, and 97 nonadopter households were surveyed. The collected data were analyzed by inferential statistics and econometric model using STATA version 13.1. Results from the probit model showed that education level of household head, annual income level, livestock holding size, access to technical support, and level of awareness have significant positive influence on households’ decision to adopt biogas technology. Other factors include poor performance of biogas plants associated to technical problems, and high installation costs unaffordable to the majority of rural population had a negative implication in adoption process. These are also the factors contributing to low adoption. Therefore, raising the population awareness on the benefits of biogas and assigning the biogas technicians who can give immediate maintenance services at “Kebele” level could extend the biogas technology.
Highlights
Nowadays, “the life of human being is highly based on energy consumption” [1, 2]
The average age of the sample biogas adopter was 46.49 and 45.80 years for nonadopter household heads (Table 1). This age difference between the two categories was statistically insignificant. This indicated that age of household heads had no influence on the adoption of biogas technology
Biogas technology implementation had continued through incentives of the national programme, the rate of adoption was found low among the rural households in Aleta Wondo district
Summary
“the life of human being is highly based on energy consumption” [1, 2]. No country has managed to substantially decrease poverty without increasing energy resources and its efficient utilization” [3]. For many sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries including Ethiopia, the energy demand is continuously rising as development progresses, and population growth is faster increasing. The modern domestic energy supply is unbalanced with its demand [4]. Around 83% of the total population in SSA countries and 91% in least developed countries have no access to modern fuels and renewable energy [5]. Like other SSA counties, Ethiopia is highly based on traditional biomass for domestic energy (for cooking, heating, and lighting); more than 93% of its population obtained energy from traditional biomass [6]
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