Clean Cooking Solutions for Rural Households
Development Alternatives has been engaged in the development and promotion of improved cook stoves for over two decades. Significant steps have been taken in the last three years, after the demise of the National Programme on Improved Cook Stoves, to establish commercially viable models for stove production and marketing in rural areas. DA and its sister organization TARAhaat Information and Marketing Services Ltd. - an internet kiosk based community development services company - have embarked upon a plan to provide one million households in Bundelkhand, with clean India cooking solutions over the next eight years.
T he choice of Bundelkhand is primarily on account of the DA Group’s long standing involvement with development initiatives in the region. It is however, also representative of several poor areas of India, covering 13 districts with 10,834 villages and a population of 15.5 million people, most of whom live in kutcha houses. 90% of the households use traditional open-fire chulhas and low-grade biomass or cow-dung as fuel. 2.2 million families – women and children in particular – are exposed to indoor air pollution.
The clean cooking solutions programme began with a pilot project (2003-05) supported by the SHELL Foundation. Its objectives were to:
- Transform latent need into demand for energy products and related
services
- Establish decentralized economically viable supply systems
- Demonstrate significant improvements in
- Family health (especially of women)
- Availability of productive time
- Family income
- Local economic benefits
The Community Awareness and Mobilization component focused on:
- Awareness and demand creation through social marketing methods
- Demonstration at village markets, local fairs
- Promotion through existing Self-Help Groups, panchayats and local CBOs
- Realized willingness to play in highly underdeveloped market
- Credibility through the use by early adopters
- Marketing push through micro-entrepreneurs
- Brand development for product and service range
Pre and post intervention- indoor air quality monitoring was conducted over three seasons in 60 households to assess the effectiveness of the improved cook stoves. Controlled cooking tests were conducted in 30 households to validate stove performance. Health effects and social impacts were surveyed in 150 households. The monitoring exercises were implemented in accordance with methodology developed by the Univ. of California at Berkely and Liverpool University. Results indicated that there had been a reduction in Suspended Particulate Matter levels from 155.1mg in traditional cook stoves to 10.2mg/m3 with the Sukhad concrete stove. Average Co concentration came down from 30.7 ppm to 4.4 ppm across 48 hours of cooking events. 21% saving on wood was reported.
Key challenges of the pilot phase, that the DA team learnt would be critical for a sustainable delivery model were :
- Timely delivery and installation of stoves,
- Post installation support (particularly on cooking methods) and troubleshooting to enhance customer satisfaction
- Management of installment schemes, small amounts of credit
- Product customization to support mass production and distribution
- Diversified portfolio of affordable energy products
- Cluster of associated products for service provider viability
- Dispersed, de-centralised pockets of operation
- Limited product range
- Micro entrepreneurs
- Basic product designs
- Part time Marketing Associates
- Ad-hoc quality measurement
- Limited geography
- Localised mobilisation
- Rudimentary management systems
- Concentrated & networked points of sale
- Versatile portfolio
- Medium sized manufacturers
- Transit resilient products
- Full t ime sales force
- Standard quality, stringent control
- Large geographical footprint
- Intensive market development
It is extremely important to note that the sustainable delivery mechanism envisaged by TARAhaat depends on a range of products and services being marketed by the TARAkendras and TARA Marketing Associates (TMA). A TARAkendra is one centre that supports many businesses such as Educational and Vocational Training, Community Activities, Distribution of other Household Durables, Financial Services and Insurance Schemes etc. Leveraging this network for scale-up would give cook stoves the benefit of cross subsidization and bring in a customer base from other services at the same point of sale.
Key implications for the commercialization process include:
- Mass-producable and distributable products; for example those made in steel or lightweight ceramics that can be easily transported.
- Effectiveness of the marketing agent as a door-to-door salesperson.
- Outreach to last-mile users who have low capacity to pay and actually place very little emphasis on smoke reduction.
In conclusion, it can be said that the DA-TARAhaat approach to sustainable promotion of improved cook stoves is based on a ‘consumer-centric’ perspective which aims to ‘commercialize instead of subsidize’, even in grossly underdeveloped markets. It is recommended that Government support and subsidies be redirected towards technical assistance, design and certification of stoves, awareness generation, sales tax exemption and use of public distribution infrastructure. Marketing of improved cookstoves can in fact, be integrated with other streams of development activity such as the Village Energy Security Programme, Housing Schemes and Health and Sanitation Programmes.
Shrashtant
Patara
spatara@devalt.org
spatara@devalt.org