What drives biogas adoption in rural Lesotho?

Abstract

AbstractDespite important efforts to put in place alternative energy technologies such as biogas to fight against indoor air pollution, only very few households have succeeded in the transition towards these sources of energy in developing countries. The objective of this paper is to explore the socioeconomic constraints related to the adoption of biogas as a major source of cooking fuel in rural households in Lesotho. Using the Demographic and Health Survey of 2014 and a logistic regression model, this study revealed that several socioeconomic factors influence the decision of households to adopt biogas significantly. Among the variables included in the model, the level of education of the household head, wealth and the size of the household have a significant effect on the decision to adopt biogas. Indeed, an additional school level increases the adoption of biogas by 1.2 percentage points. An additional person in the household reduces the chance of switching to biogas by 1 percentage point and the richest households are 50% more likely to switch to biogas than the poorest households. Moreover, there are differences in adoption according to the agro‐ecological zone.