Government and stakeholders’ interventions in encouraging public use and adoption of briquettes as an alternative to charcoal

Content

Abstract

Introduction

Materials And Methods

Results And Discussion

Conclusion

Recommendations

References

Abstract

The level of use and adoption of biomass briquette was used as a proxy for the availability of solid wastes for the households and was expected to have a positive relationship with the probability of economic viability for briquette technology as the alternative renewable energy source. Previous studies have shown that household size and availability of materials influenced adoption decisions. The objective of this study was to establish ways in which the government and other stakeholders can encourage the public to adopt briquette technology. The hypothesis guiding this study was “there’s no significant association among efforts by government and other stakeholders to encourage briquette use and adoption”. In order to determine the level of government and stakeholder involvement in promoting the use, adoption and economic viability of biomass briquettes in both urban and rural areas as an alternative source of energy, face to face interviews, alongside questionnaires, were conducted. The interviews also combined with simple participatory appraisals because these have been known to facilitate quick information acquisition. One way ANOVA with post-hoc LSD and Tukey parametric test (for multiple comparisons), 2-tailed, at α=0.05 levels were used to determine the extent of use and economic viability of briquette technology by the people in Kampala. Results show that gender was the most important parameter on which to base the evaluation of government’s efforts in promoting the use of biomass briquettes. It was recommended that gender involvement, public participation and funding briquette research productions be used in strengthening efforts to adopt and use briquettes on a large scale as an alternative renewable energy source to charcoal in Uganda.

Introduction

Energy is the engine for economic growth and development for any society or country. With a population of 34.1 million by mid 2012, Uganda is richly endowed with abundant energy resources that are fairly distributed throughout the country (UIA, 2015). These include hydro, biomass, solar, geothermal, peat and fossil fuels. Uganda’s energy matrix is dominated by biomass based energy sources contributing about 95% to the total primary energy consumption. Electricity and petroleum products contribute 4% and 1 %, respectively (MEMD, 2007). Recycling and treatment of organic wastes through briquetting technology not only produces cheap renewable energy, but also clean and convenient fuel for domestic and industrial use.

Using biomass briquette technologies in Uganda can contribute to poverty reduction, gender equality and health improvement by maintaining a clean cooking environment and also providing alternative energy to charcoal. Briquettes use leads to reduction in wood fuel consumption (FAO, 2011). Use of briquettes primarily as cooking fuel has long been practiced in many parts of the world. The low efficiency of utilization of bio-energy fuels in traditional cooking stoves, rapid depletion of village forests and biomass stocks and subsequent rise in expenditure on cooking fuels has created urgency as well as the opportunity for most governments to introduce and expand biomass briquette technology (UNDP, 2002).

Objective of the study

The objective of this study was to establish ways in which the government and other stakeholders can encourage the public to use and adopt briquette technology.

Hypothesis

This study was guided by the following hypothesis: “there’s no significant association among efforts by government and other stakeholders to encourage briquette use and adoption”.

Materials And Methods

Description of the Study Area

This study was carried out in Kampala District which is the capital city of Uganda (Figure 1). It is located on the shores of Lake Victoria with a population of about 1,597,900 people (UBOS, 2012). It covers a total area of 189 km2, of which 13km2 is water.

Fieldwork was conducted through open-ended interviews, focus discussion groups and filling questionnaires by household members. The interviews were combined with simple Participatory Appraisals (PA) because these have been known to facilitate quick acquisition of information in local communities. Different analyses were used to arrive at the final conclusions for this study. Multiple comparisons were used to determine the extent of use and economic viability of briquette technology by the people in Kampala, One-way ANOVA with post-hoc LSD and Tukey parametric test, 2-tailed at α= 0.05 level were used.

Research Population: The target population was the local communities and experts or employees from various organizations such as the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, which is a government ministry in charge of energy related issues. Supporting organizations such as NGOs and briquette manufacturing organizations were also involved in the study.

Research Design : The study used both qualitative and quantitative research designs, including surveys and experimentation. A survey was conducted among community members of 5 villages around Makindye division on use of briquettes. Interviews with key informants in organizations involved in briquette manufacturing as well as officials from government organizations involved in the energy sector were also conducted. The quantitative part involved semi structured questionnaires and experiments.

Sample size: According to Amin (2005), the target or parent population is the population for which the researcher ultimately wants to generalize the results. A sampled or accessible population refers to one from which the sample is actually drawn. The target populations from the different divisions were the local community members and then the experts or employees from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development as well as from the NGOs and CBOs. The extent to which each stratum in the population was represented in the sample was determined using stratified random sampling.

Stratification of the sample size categories: Target populations of different local community members and experts or employees were subjected to stratification in order to get the representative sample that was included and used as a target sample population and sample size. In this case, 20 community members were considered from Kirombe Village, 25 from Kiwempe, 30 from Kansanga, 38 from Gaba, 15 from Bbunga and 10 experts or employees from the different organizations, totaling to 138 respondents

Results And Discussion

Extent of communities and government involvement in the adoption and use of briquette technologies

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Figure 1: Extent of government involvement in promotion of briquette technology.

Results in figure 1 above show that 75% of the respondents said that government has very low involvement in promoting adoption of briquette technology by the communities. This was essentially because they had never been reached by anyone promoting alternative renewable energy types such as briquettes. Only about 21% had been reached hence there is still much to be done in sensitization and dissemination of this knowledge.

Table 1: One-way ANOVA .

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Gender was seen as the most important parameter on which to base the evaluation of government’s efforts in promoting the use of biomass briquettes and alternative renewable energy technologies. This was because in most cases, government tends to neglect the roles played by women in energy development projects as compared to the male counter parts, yet in reality, women feel greater consequences regarding energy crises in homes than men (Table 1) (CAEEDAC, 1999).

Table 2: Multiple comparisons on government efforts to promote briquette technology

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Different associations that exist among the variables used in assessing government’s effort in promoting the use and adoption of briquette technologies were established (Table 2). The associations and evaluation were based on three variables that appeared as being essential to government and other stakeholders, and these included: research, sensitization and education and provision of funds to briquette energy projects. The test results (Table 2) show that associations of efforts through research were perfect positive (one way ANOVA, Tukey HSD 1.00, α=0.05), associations of efforts through public education and sensitization were strongly positive (one way ANOVA Tukey HSD range 0.75-0.95, α=0.05) while associations of efforts through provision of funds to briquette projects were very strong positive (one way ANOVA Tukey HSD range 0.88-0.999, α=0.05).

These results indicate that improving energy policies, planning and proper budget allocation of funds, especially those towards renewable energy sources, can to a large extent help the public to adopt and use biomass fuels such as briquettes and this finding concurs with MEMD (2007) who stated that the Renewable Energy Policy which was approved in March 2007 had the main goal of increasing the use of modern renewable energy from the current 4 percent to 61 percent of the total energy consumption by the year 2017. The policy focuses more on demand-side management through dissemination of more energy efficient technologies (such as improved cook stoves).

The inter-linked associations that are strong show that one of the government efforts or energy strategies can help to improve another energy strategy geared towards the public use and adoption of briquette technologies in Uganda. Sensitization and education strategies, if perfected positively can help in improving energy policies and their implementation by the public (Tukey HSD 1.000, significant at α=0.05, 2-tailed, one way ANOVA POST-HOC). Thus, one better way to improve the public understanding of government policies relating to energy was through sensitization and public education. This finding is in agreement with Emerhi (2011) who asserted that the use of briquettes should be given wide publicity in Nigeria due to the imminent wood shortage and scarcity of other energy sources, of which this problem applies to Uganda as well.

Funding briquette projects by the government (Table 2) can help greatly to improve access to energy information by the public (Tukey HSD 0.999, positive perfect association, significant at α=0.05, 2-tailed one-way ANOVA POST-HOC). This can also influence the ways in which information on energy policies and their implementation is achieved by the government (Tukey HSD 0.799, significant at α=0.05). The analysis further suggests (Table 2) that when energy policies are improved and implemented, then sensitization and education can be perfected as the association between these two is (Tukey HSD 1.000, significant α=0.05, perfect positive). This can as well impact strongly and positively on briquette project funding (Tukey HSD 0.799) and adequate access to energy information to the public (Tukey HSD 0.982, significant at α=0.05, 2-tailed One-way ANOVA POST-HOC). This finding also concurs with EEP/SEA (2013) which emphasized that there are several measures to increase the competitiveness of briquettes at the end market, including raising their energy content, reducing the price per energy output of briquettes and increasing the price of charcoal per energy output.

Biomass briquette technology is more attractive when the local equivalent energy price is high and when the machines are highly efficient and easy to manage (Brush and Taylor, 1992). When the price of the replaced energy is high such as that of wood charcoal and electricity, it positively motivates the briquette producer and user to turn to cheaper briquette energy for domestic, industrial or institutional applications. Similar results were reported by Ji-Quin and Nyns (1996) who concluded that for the biomass briquettes or biogas consumer, the motivation usually depends on the economic benefits obtained by replacement of traditional fuels with briquette and the modernization and convenience of daily life. Increased deforestation over the years has increased the cost of wood fuel. The likelihood of households accepting briquettes as a cheaper alternative energy source is therefore higher now, if the government is willing to invest in this resource.

Conclusion

The strong interlinked associations show that one government effort can help to improve another strategy geared towards the public use and adoption of briquette technologies in Uganda hence the need for a multi-faceted united approach is required among all stakeholders. Uganda has a long way to go if it has to key into the sustainable Energy for all Initiative of the United Nations (SE4ALL) and to also achieve the millennium development goals (MDG) by 2030, as indicated in the State of Environment Report (NEMA, 2010). Developing and harnessing of the country’s renewable energy potential is still necessary if the country’s energy needs are to be met.

Recommendations

The Government of Uganda and other stakeholders in the energy sector should develop cooperation channels among themselves to promote a concerted effort in encouraging public adoption of briquettes since the efforts have high positive associations with each other.

Uganda’s objective in the Energy and Renewable energy policies is “to meet the energy needs of Uganda’s population for socio-economic development in an environmentally sustainable manner and to increase the use of modern renewable energy sources from the current 4% to 61%”. This is an ambitious target that should be backed up with capacity building activities in modern energy technologies and adequate financing.

References

Brush, B.S. and Taylor, J.E., (1992). Technology adoption and biological diversity in Andean potato agriculture. Journal of Development Economics 39, 365 – 387.

CAEEDAC (Canadian Agricultural Energy End Use Data and Analysis Centre). (1999). The Economics of Biogas in the Hog Industry, A Report Prepared for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), The Canadian Agricultural Energy End Use Data and Analysis Centre CAEEDAC), Fall: http://www.usask.ca/agriculture/caedac/PDF/HOGS.pdf

EEP/SEA-Energy and Environment Partnership/Southern and Eastern Africa, (2013) Analysing Briquette Markets in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda Report, January.

Emerhi, E. A. (2011). Physical and combustion properties of briquettes produced from sawdust of three hardwood species and different organic binders, Asaba, Nigeria. Pelagia Research Library. Advances in Applied Science Research, 2 (6):236-246. www.pelagiaresearchlibrary.com

FAO-Food and Agricultural Organization (2011). FAOSTAT, Rome, Italy. http://faostat.fao.org/site/626/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=626#ancor. Accessed on 1 March 2011.

Ferguson, H. (2012). Briquette Businesses in Uganda, GVEP International London, UK, p.31- 39.

Ji-Quin, N. and Nyns, E. (1996). New concept for evaluation of biogas management in developing countries. Energy Conversion and Management, 37, 1525–1534.

Kebede, Y., Gunjal, K. and Coffin, G., (1990). Adoption of new technologies in Ethiopian agriculture: The case of Tegulet-Bulgga, Shoa Province. Agricultural Economics 4, 27- 43.

MEMD-Ministry of Energy & Mineral Development (2007). Renewable Energy Policy for Uganda. Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development

NEMA-National Environment Management Authority (2010). National State of Environment Report, 2009-2010, accessed at www.nemaug.org/soe2011.php, 177p.

UNDP- United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund-UNICEF (2002). Millenium Development Goals in Africa-Promises and progress, United Nations, New York.

UIA – Uganda Investments Authority (2015). Energy resources in Uganda for your investiment (lucrative investment opportunities in Uganda 2015). Kampala – Uganda.