FUEL WOOD USE EFFICIENCY OF MIRT STOVE AND DETERMINANTS OF ITS ADOPTION IN DILLA TOWN, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Heavy dependence on biomass coupled with traditional open fire stoves is a major cause of deforestation, contributing to environmental degradation and prevalence of health problems due to indoor air pollution. One response to address such problems is switch to improved cook stoves; Mirt stoves are the major ones.This study was conducted to evaluate the fuel saving potential of Mirt stove as compared to traditional open fire stove and to asses the determinant factors for Mirt stove adoption in Dilla town, Southern Ethiopia. Data was collected from 384 households that were systematically selected from randomly selected three kebeles involving questionnaires. Key energy experts and Mirt stove producers were selected purposively and Semistructured interviews were held with them. The data gathered were analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression. Controlled cooking test (CCT) was employed to evaluate the fuel saving potential of Mirt stove as compared to traditional; a triplicate test of CCT for both stoves was made. The findings showed that 66.2% of the household’s major energy source was purely fuel wood. The sources were the surrounding rular forest mainly from agroferstry systems. Most of the households (83.6%) were non adopters of Mirt stove.Most of them bake injera using traditional open fire stoves. Mirt stove has specific fuel wood consumption of 0.47kg per kg of injera and traditional open fire stove 0.78kg per kg of injera. As compared to traditional open fire stove, Mirt stove saves 0.31kg (31%) of fuel wood. The differences in the length of time to bake a given amount of injera and the amount of charcoal extracted from both stoves were evaluated and t test showed statistically insignificant difference (p>0.05). The regression result reveals that, marital status, income and availability of Mirt stove were significantly affecting adoption of Mirt stove (p<0.05), while, distance, culture and fixed nature of the stove have showed negative significant effect (p<0.01). However, age, information, family size, educational level of the HH and price of the stove were not significant factor for adoption of Mirt stove. Based on the finding; there was extensive utilization of biomass energy sources in the town. Mirt stove plays vital role in reducing the amount of fuel wood consumed in turn will have postive implication in environmental pollution & people’s health. It is recommended that Mirt stoves should be made available for households in right market place.