Pollution from the existing traditional stoves is a major source of pollution related illness in rural communities worldwide. Over the past two years, Development Alternatives’ research units have been developing cook stoves (chullas) which significantly reduce the extremely high levels of pollution in rural homes.  The SHELL Foundation and TARAhaat have joined hands under the “Shell Breathing Spaces Programme” to develop a commercially viable distribution strategy, which will become a worldwide model for rapid and sustainable replication of low smoke-emitting energy efficient chullas /cook stoves.  Development Alternatives has placed its intellectual property rights in the public domain and TARAhaat will, with the assistance from Development Alternatives, create and manage the supply chain and distribution infrastructure for a rapid penetration of these environment friendly products into rural homes. 

The SHELL Foundation will provide the initial funding to support the creation of the infrastructure and the scale up of the network for achieving commercial viability.  The funding allows TARAhaat to test alternative distribution strategies and facilitate the large-scale creation of sustainable, entrepreneur-based livelihoods.  This approach enables TARAhaat to deliver the Shell Foundation objectives to bring affordable, clean, convenient and reliable cooking, lighting and space heating solutions to the village households in Bundelkhand, for their primary domestic energy needs.  

Our systems, accountability and outreach have given SHELL the confidence to partner and work with us. We plan to distribute household energy products through three distinct channels to arrive at an optimal marketing strategy.  The three channels to be assessed are:  (1) The TARAkendras as sales points (2) The traditional village retail network and (3) Independent self-employed individuals, TARA Marketing Associates, on a 100% commission based programme.  

DA and TARAhaat will reach over one million households by 2010.  This target will be achieved by the addition of the new TARAkendras that a partnership with an organisation like Shell will foster. 

The current product portfolio consists of three products i.e. SARAL (single pot), TARA-101 and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) i.e. in-situ stove. SARAL cook-stove is provided with a chimney which takes out the smoke emitted during cooking while TARA-101 is a stove which is best known for its portability. DIY consists of three components i.e. pottery liner, a connector and a chimney. 

In future, ceramic liner stoves and modified TARA-101 for cooking rotis will be added to the product portfolio. 

Lighting and other alternative energy products are also under consideration as another product line. Both Phillips and Freeplay have invested time and resources with DA and TARAhaat to evaluate the needs of the rural markets.  Both DA and TARAhaat are working closely with Phillips and Freeplay to assess whether customised products can be designed and distributed sustainably.  It is unlikely that during the pilot we will have a major breakthrough, but we will test the market further with some new products, which have been made available by Phillips recently.  We will also attempt to market their existing products to the narrow market niches, which can afford the existing products.  

At the manufacturing end, the majority of DA designed chullahs require bulk manufacturing, though these may well be distributed to serve different market clusters.  Some of the models can be made by small enterprises located at district or even block level towns.  The one exception is the DIY chullahs, including those based on liner kits, which are currently under development where only certain key components, to be included in the kit, are to be manufactured.  Since the cost of transportation from the manufacturer to the end customer adds to the overall supply chain cost, as do the state taxes, it becomes necessary to identify a network of manufacturers who can supply the chullahs closer to the end customer. 

The sale of ICS products will require cutting edge marketing and awareness building.  Given the lack of overall awareness of the IAP (Indoor Air Pollution) issues, and the ready and widespread availability of free unprocessed biomass based fuels, consumers have little or no incentive to spend on ICS products which cost many magnitudes more than the traditional, polluting cook stoves. 

While DA and TARAhaat have addressed the need to mobilise government institutions to actively participate and assist in the awareness building campaigns, during the pilot an attempt will be made to mobilise the district level institutions to partner with TARAhaat in building awareness at the panchayat and village level.  TARAhaat will also create focused and hard-hitting campaigns to educate consumers in terms of the impact of IAP and how the ICS and alternative energy products alleviate its impact on their families. 

Over the last few months DA has engaged Saarthak, TARAhaat’s communications consultant and advertising agency to evaluate the user response to its marketing and product initiatives.  A second, more in depth market survey is being conducted over 200 households comprising purchasers – further divided between user and non-user households, and non-purchasers.  The results of these surveys are being used in developing TARAhaat’s media strategy for the pilot and will assist DA in developing new ICS products. 

The Shell Breathing Spaces Programme requires financing strategies for a number of stakeholders. TARAhaat, as the manager of the programme, has to ensure that funding of its working capital requirements can be met until the programme can seek market based financing. TARAhaat has already launched a number of initiatives with SBI and ICICI to address these issues, the pilot will allow the assessment of actual needs and requirements and the design of optimal solutions.  Recruitment of key individuals to support this initiative has been underway and will be completed in August. 

While TARAhaat has recruited and developed a highly qualified cadre of professionals in the last couple of years, the scope of the Breathing Spaces Programme requires the recruitment of a number of additional resources to be dedicated to deliver the targets committed in the programme.  Recruiting for these individuals has been in place since April, and a number of key positions have been filled.   

In Training, TARAhaat has its existing training programmes which need to be adapted for large scale delivery and converted to Computer Based Training (CBT) programmes to reduce the cost of delivery and ensure optimal quality standards. In addition, specific training programmes need to be developed or adapted from TARAhaat’s existing portfolio of training programmes to address the needs of the Shell Breathing Spaces programme.q

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