Abstract:
Uganda has lost sixty (60%) of its forest cover (72,000 hactres) mainly due to charcoal
burning and firewood exploitation. This loss negatively affects rainfall patterns, animal and
plant habitats threating biodiversity/wild life conservation and the tourism industry that are
key livelihood sources in Uganda. Efforts to minimize charcoal burning and firewood
exploitation through promotion clean and efficient cooking fuel technologies especially
Liquidfied Petrolium Gas and energy saving stoves is underway. This study evaluated the
effect of cooking practices on fuel wood consumption through determining the prevalent
cooking stove used, the effect of stove prototypes on fuel consumption and the cost benefit of
adopting energy saving stoves along side a researcher’s prototype. Results showed out of 76
respomndents, majority, 37 (48%) used charcoal stoves, followed by 27 (35.5%) that used
three stone fire stove with only 7 (9.2%) using energy saving stoves. Majority of fuel utilized
per day was recorded in repondents that used the three stone cook stoves (8.3kg/day) while
the leaset fuel was recorded in respondents that used energy saving stove (0.8 kg) of charcoal
per day. At the same time, cooking trials with the researchers energy-saving stove prototype
recorded utilization of 4.4 kg of firewood that cost 1,100shillings and 6.4 kg for the three
stone fire stove that cost 1600shilling daily to cook unsoacked beans within 3:25 hours . It
was concluded that use of firewood and charcoal were the main cooking fuels used among
respondents, the practice used higher fuel biomass than energy saving stoves that would save
2kg worth 500shilling per day. This implied that the practice of firewood exploitation is still
the major driver of deforestation in Uganda. It was recommended that government should
support initiatives to increase access to affordable energy saving and envrironmentally
friendly household cooking technologies.
