From 1979 to 1983, ITDG collaborated with the Sri Lankan NGO, Sarvodaya, to develop a domestic cooking stove which would conserve fuel and reduce smoke. The design which was produced has subsequently been promoted under the Ministry of Power and Energy's National Fuelwood Conservation Programme, which is now operating in several districts. Hambantota was one of the first to become involved and, to date, has by far the greatest concentration of stoves.
This paper will outline the evolving pattern of biomass energy production, distribution and use in Hambantota district, as a context within which to assess how beneficial the new stoves have been.[top] [end]Background
Hambantota covers an area of 2600 square km. and stretches for about 130 kms. along the southeast coast of Sri Lanka. The population is a little less than 0.5 mn. The largest urban centres Tangalle, Ambalantota and Hambantota - all lie close to the coast, and each have approximately 10,000 inhabitants. More than 90% of the population live in rural areas, and agriculture is by far the most important occupation. Manufacturing is confined largely to cottage and small-scale industries and accounts for less than 10% of total employment.
The western part of the district, comprising some 30% of the total land area, falls mainly in the "intermediate" climatic zone, with average annual rainfall in the range 1210 to 1900 mm. Population densities here vary from 300 to 450 per square km.
The extreme west is mainly under coconut plantations. A little further down the coast, these give way to smaller home gardens which are devoted mainly to vegetable cultivation; but in both areas there is also a significant amount of land under paddy. Moving further inland, beyond the home gardens, is an area where shifting cultivation (chena) is practiced.
The remaining 70% of the land to the east, is part of the dry zone, where annual rainfall is below 1270 mm. Population densities here presently vary from 50 to 200 per square km. This area has experienced four major changes in the last generation, each of which has had important implications for fuel availability and use. In order of occurrence, these were:[top] [end]The Production, Distribution and Use of Biomass Fuels (2)
In the dry eastern part of the district, wood from the weera and palu trees are the preferred and most commonly used biomass fuels. They are obtained from cleared chenas, but as the number of settlers has increased, rotation cycles have shortened, and supplies have diminished. This has had three major effects:
Nearly all urban consumers purchase their fuel, and the market is dominated by weera and palu. Real prices have only risen slightly over the last five years, which seems surprising, since the carters who bring the wood from the chenas must now travel much further to obtain their supplies than hitherto. The reason why this has not been reflected in much higher prices lies in the greater competition between suppliers which has arisen as increasing numbers of farmers have been forced into the fuel trade by the drought.
But carters will not be able to go on accepting declining returns for their work indefinitely and there is a general feeling that in a further three to four years, it will no longer be viable for them to continue to practice their trade. As this occurs, they will be replaced by larger entrepreneurs, relying on lorries to bring in fuel from further afield; and at this point it seems inevitable that prices will rise sharply.
There have also been changes in the western part of the district, although their impact had been less pronounced than in the east:
In Tangalle, the only major urban centre in the west, fuel consumption patterns are more diversified than in the towns to the east. A significant minority of households here have their own home gardens supplying coconut wastes; and where fuels are purchased these may come from a number of different sources. These include weera and palu brought in by carters from chenas, and as in the east, these are now in shorter supply than hitherto. But consumers in Tangalle are also able to draw on coconut wood wastes from saw mills, on other plantation byproducts such as cinnamon sticks, and on coconut wastes transported short distances into the town by home garden owners. The availability of alternative sources of reasonable quality has, in other words, compensated for the shortages of other fuels. The transition to the situation where it is no longer feasible to supply these fuels to the town by cart, should therefore be accomplished with less difficulty than in the east.[top] [end]The Stoves Project
The project to disseminate new cooking stoves started in 1985. Funding was provided under the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), with Assistant Government Agent's (AGA) offices taking responsibility for day to day administration. Staff from the Rural Energy Centre at Patiyapolla have also been actively involved. Prior to our own research, the IRDP had already carried out its own investigation (3), and it was possible to draw on this in formulating our own conclusions.
By mid-1987, about 20,000 stoves had been installed in the district, and the IRDP study found average reported fuel savings of 25%. This figure was difficult to substantiate, but did not appear unrealistic in the light of our own enquiries, which revealed that the majority of new stoves were being adopted by households who had previously used the highly energy inefficient three stone system.
These favourable indicators cannot be discounted, but closer examination, conducted in the light of the trends in fuel availability and use discussed above, suggests that the full potential of the project has not been realised.
Limitations stem from the fact that the strategy pursued seems simply to have been to encourage the dissemination of as many stoves as possible, with little regard to the effect on fuel savings of who was adopting, or where adoption was taking place. Three specific consequences followed from this.
Firstly, although some stoves have been adopted by members of all major socio-economic groups, there has been a tendency - pronounced in the IRDP study, less marked in our own - for rates of adoption to be highest amongst government servants and other professional groups, and lowest among poorer groups such as labourers. In the absence of clear guidelines to the contrary, it seems that those promoting the stove have tended, understandably, to pay disproportionate attention to their own peer group.
Leaving considerations of equity aside, this is almost certainly inefficient. The urban poor would suffer most from fuel price increases, and would therefore be more inclined than other urban groups to take full advantage of the new stove. Similarly, in the rural areas, the poorest households are those who are least likely to be able to obtain adequate fuel from their home gardens, and hence most likely to put the new stoves to good use.
Targetting these groups would be complicated by an unwillingness on the part of some households to install a new stove before they have been able to effect other improvements in their kitchens, but if savings can be shown to be as great as is claimed, and the present high level of subsidisation is retained, then this resistance should not be difficult to overcome.
The second consequence of the lack of a clear allocation policy has been for adoptions to cluster around existing rural development projects, and around the town of Tangalle - where the AGA has proved enthusiastic, and where the influence of the nearby Patiyapolla Centre has also been apparent.
The effects of "project" bias are difficult to discern, but the concentration around Tangalle, which is especially pronounced, appears sub optimal in the light of the earlier discussion about the relative extent to which shortages are likely to develop in different parts of the district. The indications are quite clearly that it is in the dry east, where the fuels conventionally used are under greatest pressure, and where there are few opportunities for people to successfully adapt to shortages by themselves, that stoves will be likely to have the greater impact.
Thirdly, a case might be made for giving towns a greater priority than rural areas, on the grounds that urban consumers would have virtually no option other than to pay more if prices increased. Most rural consumers, by contrast, would enjoy at least some flexibility of response.
Whether this final point can be represented as a criticism of the project is hard to determine, since available records make it difficult to be sure how many users are urban and how many are rural. But overall, it is fairly clear that prior and more explicit consideration of the context into which stoves were to be introduced, would have led to a situation where greater wood fuel savings could have been achieved, and where other benefits could have been optimised.[top] [end]Notes
The author refers to the loss of forest cover in the survey area. There has also been a major loss of forest from the Victoria Dam hydro electric project in nearby parts of Sri Lanka. One of the factors affecting the supply of fuelwood is said to be the 3 year drought. Does he consider this to be cause and effect and if so can it be expected to continue or recurr and so have a long term effect on fuel supplies and perhaps population densities and fuel requirements?
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