Adoption and Utilization of Improved Cookstove in Ghana

Abstract

Half of the world's population cooks with inefficient cookstove that run on biomass fuel such as wood, dung, and charcoal. These pose serious health risks to users because they emit excessive smoke due to incomplete combustion. Regardless of commitments by government and civil society organizations to scale up adoption and utilization of improved cookstove in Ghana, the market share is low, approximately 5% of the total cookstove market (GACC, 2012). One key challenge confronting actors in the cookstove program in Ghana is absence of empirical studies on factors that influence adoption and utilization and this study seeks to fill this gap. The study was cross-sectional nature based on primary data collected through a survey process at the study area. The study area comprised six towns in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality, namely, Ejisu, Juaben, Asotwe, Besease and Anwomaso. A sample size of 400 households was used for the purpose of the study. It was evident that adoption of improved cookstove was negatively influenced by household size and positively by composition of adult females in the household. On the issue of utilization or frequency of use, the main influencing factors were income correlates such as household income, number of income-earning members in the household and the level of education of household head. All these factors reduced frequency of utilization because they facilitated households' ability to provide other improved means of cooking.