Abstract
ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to analyze the factors enabling/limiting the use of improved cookstoves among rural fuel wood users from one mestizo and two indigenous communities eight years after an intervention in the state of Michoacan, in Mexico.MethodsA qualitative study with an ethnographic perspective was conducted in 2013/2014 based on 62 interviews with women who had participated in an improved firewood cookstove program in 2005. Thematic qualitative content analysis was performed.ResultsVery few women from the indigenous communities were using the improved cookstove at the time of the study; the majority had dismantled or had ceased using it; whereas most of those from the mestizo community were using it for all of their cooking activities. In the indigenous communities, characterized by extended families, uptake of new technology was limited by traditional routine practices, rearrangement of rooms in the house, attachment to the traditional stove, a low- or non-risk perception of woodsmoke; gender relations, insufficient training, non-compliance with program recommendations and design-related aspects. Conversely, in the mestizo community, the uptake of the improved cookstove was favored by routine cooking practices in a nuclear family, a previous use of a raised cookstove and social representations on the health-disease-death effects of woodsmoke vs. the health benefits of cooking with improved stoves. The sociocultural dimension of communities and the cookstove design are aspects that either favor or limit the use of improved cookstoves in indigenous and mestizo populations.ConclusionsEffective cookstove programs must take these elements into account from their early planning stages, and blend them into implementation and follow-up. Project communication, training and differentiated follow-up activities ensuring the operation and maintenance of the cookstove, should be designed according to the specific needs and traditions of each community; they should be based on the preferences and needs of the users.
Highlights
Solid fuel use and cooking technologiesSolid fuels are used extensively for cooking and home heating in developing countries, especially in rural areas
In the mestizo community, the uptake of the improved cookstove was favored by routine cooking practices in a nuclear family, a previous use of a raised cookstove and social representations on the health-disease-death effects of woodsmoke vs. the health benefits of cooking with improved stoves
Project communication, training and differentiated follow-up activities ensuring the operation and maintenance of the cookstove, should be designed according to the specific needs and traditions of each community; they should be based on the preferences and needs of the users
Summary
Of pre-Hispanic origin, the indigenous communities of Turicuaro and Quinceo lie in the municipalities of Nahuatzen and Paracho, respectively. Among the multiple advantages associated by respondents with the new technology, the ones most frequently cited concerned ICS design: it required less firewood, did not produce smoke in the kitchen (a user from Quinceo even compared it with the gas stove), allowed for performing a number of tasks simultaneously (e.g., cooking meals and making tortillas), did not dirty or blacken pots, and remained hot for a long time, keeping the food hot until the moment it was served:. This multiplicity of functions led mestizo women to view their new stoves as a “necessary or indispensable” asset They commented that the ICS cooked food more quickly, allowed for preparing several dishes simultaneously, maintained its heat for a long time allowing the food to stay warm until serving time, used less firewood than the traditional stoves, did not expose children to accidents, did not dirty their clothes while they cooked or made tortillas, improved the flavor of the food, as it no longer tasted like smoke, and prevented respiratory diseases in the children and in themselves.
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