What Makes People Adopt Improved Cookstoves – Empirical Evidence from Rural Northwest Pakistan
Dependence of the world population on biomass fuels for domestic energy consumption
is one of the major anthropogenic causes of deforestation worldwide. The use of
biomass in inefficient ways in rural areas increases the fuelwood demand of a
household. Development of the improved biomass stove programs in the 1970s has
been one of the efforts to reduce the burden on biomass resource base through reliable
and efficient methods of energy consumption. However, despite having multiple
economic, social, environmental, and health benefits, the improved stove dissemination
programs failed to capture worldwide recognition. A wide array of socio-cultural,
economic, political and institutional barriers contributes to the low adoption rate of
such programs.
Drawing on field work surveys in rural northwest Pakistan, this paper provides
empirical evidence of individual, household, and community level variables that play a
vital role in the adoption of improved cookstoves. The study is based on primary data
collected from 100 randomly selected households in two villages of rural northwest
Pakistan. Using regression analysis, the study finds that education and household
income are the most significant factors that determine a household willingness to adopt
improved biomass stoves. The study concludes that the rate of adoption could
substantially be improved if the government and non-governmental organizations play
a greater role in overcoming the social, economic, cultural, political, and institutional
barriers to adopting improved cooking technologies.
