Access to wood fuels for cooking must be considered when formulating policy to deal with food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, according to researchers who advocate expanding the effort to improve wood-fuel systems and make them more sustainable.
Access to wood fuels for cooking must be considered when formulating policy to deal with food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, according to researchers who advocate expanding the effort to improve wood-fuel systems and make them more sustainable.
Although the health risks of collecting and using firewood and charcoal in traditional ways are real, policy makers, researchers and donors need to address the sustainability and viability of the biomass used by the majority of people, according to Ruth Mendum, director of gender initiatives in the Office of International Programs, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State. She collaborated with Mary Njenga, a research scientist who specializes in bioenergy at the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya.
Firewood collection in African society is a gender issue because it is done almost exclusively by women, noted Mendum, who said inadequate sources of cooking energy contribute to food insecurity, particularly for very low income, food-insecure individuals. She believes that that reality has been overlooked intentionally by decision-makers in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Nairobi, Tanzania and Zambia in their efforts to advocate for progressive cooking energy.
"It's not always a question of money — in many cases people simply prefer cooking with wood," she said. "But we have literally been in places where people have food but don't have a way to cook it. It is an uncomfortable issue but it's an issue we need to understand better and learn how to make wood burning for cooking sustainable."
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Image: The researchers watch women in the Central Highlands of Kenya collect and carry downed wood from the national forest to be used for cooking. The wood residues were left after trees were harvested in a plantation within the forest. Wood fuels are by far the most widely used for cooking in sub-Saharan Africa. On the continent as a whole, more than 90 percent of the population relies on firewood or charcoal. (Credit: James Gitau)
