Abstract
Many communities across the globe still practice poor cooking cultures as part of their well-being to prepare food and other heating activities. Such bad cooking practices are not environmentally friendly, are wasteful and have adverse health effects. This work presents the results of the survey that was conducted to establish the existing cooking practices commonly used in Uganda, identify the commonly used fuel during cooking, identify perceptions on improved cooking stoves (ICS), perceived preferences during cooking as well as identify whether users are aware of the health challenges due to poor cooking and describe community opinions of ICS for rural communities in Uganda. The interviews were conducted on household levels across all the regions covering Uganda’s major rural regions. It was observed that the largest population of rural Ugandans still use the 3 stone stove fire for cooking with a percentage of 53.5%, Charcoal stove, 27.3%, Improved cooking stove, 16.9%, Electric cookers,1.2%, LPG 0.7% and biogas 0.5% for the preparation of their various types of cooked foods while forest firewood is the commonly used biomass fuel for cooking with a percentage of 66.8% compared to Charcoal, Briquettes, Saw dust and others with a percentage of 27.1%, 0.7%, 0.7%, 1.1% respectively. This reveals the great majority of users whose life is at risk as 3 stone stoves are characterized by low efficiency and high smoke production which increases the health risks of the users as well as increase the risk of deforestation rates. Household cooks showed great willingness to pay for a novel stove type in all the 4 regions but from the survey data, it was indicated that the preferences varied from one region to another with a great majority preferring minimal smoke production with increased heat retention capacity. It was revealed that 91.4% of the interviewed households were aware of the health challenges due to poor cooking methods which they resolved by using open space during cooking. There was variation in the quantity of food cooked in a day, time spent on cooking and how often the cooking is done from one region to another due to the difference in economic activities as well as the different climate factors. While using cooking stoves, users preferred large cooking pot space with minimal smoke production and rapid heating. Such information can act as a basis for the design of an improved cooking stove for the rural Ugandan community as engineered products must be designed to suit the needs of the end-user.
Highlights
About 3.1 billion people living in low and middle-income countries worldwide rely on polluting fossil fuels and technologies for cooking [1] with 1.4 billion deprived of grid electricity [2] and 85% of those people living in rural areas [3]
It was observed that the largest population of rural Ugandans still use the 3 stone stove fire for cooking with a percentage of 53.5%, Charcoal stove, 27.3%, Improved cooking stove, 16.9%, Electric cookers,1.2%, LPG 0.7% and biogas 0.5% for the preparation of their various types of cooked foods while forest firewood is the commonly used biomass fuel for cooking with a percentage of 66.8% compared to Charcoal, Briquettes, Saw dust and others with a percentage of 27.1%, 0.7%, 0.7%, 1.1% respectively
A total sample of 759 households were randomly selected from 13 districts across the different regions of Uganda including the northern 19.8%, eastern 12.9%, central 29.0% and western region 38.3% revealing the required research data on cooking methods, preferences, commonly used biomass fuels, quantity of fuel/biomass used per day, source of cooking fuel, willingness to pay for the novel stove type, desired design features on the cooking stoves such as port diameter and size, knowledge of health effects arising from indoor pollution, prevailing cooking practices, quantity of food cooked in a day, time spent on cooking a day, frequency of cooking, commonly cooked foods by region, awareness to products of incomplete combustion such as biochar, as well as views on the benefits of ash generated
Summary
About 3.1 billion people living in low and middle-income countries worldwide rely on polluting fossil fuels and technologies for cooking [1] with 1.4 billion deprived of grid electricity [2] and 85% of those people living in rural areas [3]. This situation has been worsened by use of inefficient open fires and 3 stone stoves by the rural households. Notwithstanding, research further reveals that three billion people worldwide still rely on some form of solid fuel i.e. traditional biomass and coal to meet their cooking and heating needs [15] [16] This becomes a big threat to the forest resources and the air pollution at large in the developing countries mainly for Uganda whose birth rate is high with it being ranked the second in the whole world since the main source of biomass fuel is obtained by deforestation. The crucial contribution of future research in alleviating the burden of disease associated with the use of solid fuel, lies less in evidence-based advocacy, a great deal of evidence based research effort is needed to mitigate these global challenges and has prompted this research
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