The Kaleidoscope of Cooking – Understanding Cooking Behaviour and Stove Preferences in Rural India
GIZ under the Indo-German Energy Programme, and in close cooperation with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), explored cooking patterns and consumer preferences for improved cookstoves (ICS) in the three Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. GIZ developed a methodology to measure stove preferences and acceptance and applied it in 180 households. The methodology included rotating six different stove models through all 180 households over a period of six weeks while collecting detailed user feedback on a weekly basis.
The study’s main findings underline the need to better incorporate local contexts and prevailing traditional cooking behaviour and user preferences in stove selection for future cookstove interventions. Besides helping to identify appropriate clean cooking technologies suitable for the needs of users living in different geographical and socio-economic contexts, the report also describes suggestions from rural cooks to improve existing ICS further in order to better meet their cooking requirements.
