Udaipur Urja InitiativesAn off-shoot of Seva Mandir Organization, Udaipur

AND

Reporting Officer – Mr. Anantvijay Singh Volunteers :-

Raghvendra Singh Chauhan “Pursuing Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from NIT Trichy” and Jayesh Dadu Swami “Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from SPSU Udaipur”. The main reason for us behind doing this is to understand the working of an NGO and do our small bit towards the improvement of the society and reason behind taking up the field work is to experience nature in its most raw form which is present in the rural part of our country.

The Cookstove Project WHY - The vast majority of families in southern Rajasthan use traditional stoves for

cooking food, heating water and space, and preparing feed for cattle.These stoves are traditionally three-stone fires on the ground or stoves built of mud, clay or cement, all of which lack a chimney.This leads to the emission of smoke, greenhouse gases and particulate matter which create pollution and are injurious to health. Forestlands are reducing rapidly creating a burden for the women as they have to walk longer distances.

HOW - Greenway Grameen Infra Pvt Ltd developed a new generation of stoves, which deliver  fuel savings of between 50 and 70%, and minimize harmful emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter. The stoves are neat and simple to use, lightweight so that they can be easily carried around and the since they are covered from all sides the thorough airflow makes cooking easy.

How was UUI setup and how were they able to finance the cookstoves ?

In order to finance the purchase of stoves for the target 18,500 families in the Kherwara and Rishabhdev districts south of Udaipur, Seva Mandir came up with the idea of selling carbon credits which are generated when the families use the improved stoves instead of the old polluting stoves. A company buys the credits, funding upfront the purchase of the new stoves.  The project is now registered with Gold Standard.

As Seva Mandir, being a not-for-profit organization, is legally not permitted to trade carbon credits, a separate entity was set up to implement this project, namely Udaipur Urja Initiatives Producer Company Ltd (UUI),Urja means energy so the company name reflects both the energy saved by the cookstoves and the energy generated within the communities involved in this new Endeavour. 

Task – Establishing a baseline for the usage of wood using qualitative and quantitative data which includes surveys of the locals from villages like Kaya and Patiya and Saru (Tehsil Girwa)

We went on a field trip to the given villages with a questionnaire (survey form) drafted under the guidance of our reporting officer to collect information about the family members, their usage of wood, types of wood they use and collect data. Our field trip also included a quantitative data which included a weighing test for a selected number of families  who have stoves and families still using the traditional stoves for 7 days consecutively in a week, weigh the wood and distribute it to the families and ask them to use it and measure the amount.

Amidst all this, a focused group discussion was conducted in the villages which was a meeting with the women of the villages regarding the work of Seva Mandir in the village, electricity, sanitation, all information regarding the wood collection and its usage and the different types of fuel they use apart from wood for their daily activities like cooking food, feeding their cattle, lighting their lamps, heating the water and other things.

Different types of Methods used to extract information about the Task in hand.

FGD – Focused Group Discussion – A meeting was held every third and fourth day of the week during the field trip with the women of the village, the meeting included women from both type of families, the one with the improved stoves and the ones who didn’t have the improved stoves who used traditional stoves and even LPG’s. Questions regarding the wood consumption, wood collection, usage of kerosene, water situation in the village etc.

Survey/Questionnaire – A survey form was designed on the App SocialCops Collect under the guidance of our Reporting officer and included the general information about the families, their members, about their main source of income, what type of stove they are using and all data regarding the wood consumption. Using an App made our jobs quite easy and very less time consuming

Wood Weighing Test – This test takes place for 7 days consecutively, 7 lots of 15 kgs are made for 7 days and distributed to the both types of families having improved stoves and traditional stoves and they are required to use the same sets of wood for their daily activities, next day the volunteers go and check the weight of wood remaining which can be used to draw a huge advantage between the two.

FGD - Kaya Kaya is a Village in Girwa Tehsil in Udaipur District of Rajasthan State, India. It

belongs to Udaipur Division. It is located 24 KM towards South from District head quarters Udaipur, 30 minute drive on a bike. Hindi and Mewari are the languages spoken and the village has a huge tribal population mostly constituting of the Meena's with around 450-475 families.

The village has electricity with a proper connection, water is drawn from the nearby well, hand pumps for drinking purposes and the river flowing through the heart of the village, which is used for irrigation purposes, washing and bathing purposes. Every house has a proper toilet built mostly outside their houses, no one openly defecates in the village which is remarkable.

Seva Mandir's work has been quite appreciated in the area by the women  related to distribution of the improved stoves and improvising the cooking conditions of the women. The regular check on the stoves by the monitors of Seva Mandir has been also credited as one the main reasons for an efficient functioning of the improved stoves.

FGD - Kaya It was realized while talking to the women that livelihood of most of the families is

based upon agriculture and the small piece of land which is inherited by them which cannot produce such high yield for large families and credited as one the reasons for men to look for another job in the city or outside the village.

Reasons for low distribution of stoves in the village despite a large population -

 Many of the families have applied for gas connections promised by  the   government and are still waiting and till then, don’t want to spend 500 bucks on the improved stoves which is an important sum for them, some of the houses have one or two people (either a widow or a couple) and they say they manage it easily without the improved stoves.

Major Shortcoming of the stoves -  It cannot take large quantity of wood at one go due to which the ash is dropped outside

the heating area of the material and it is not heated properly and the wood has to be chopped to small pieces every time which is time consuming.

in the times of winter when the women want their stoves to be turned on for a long period of time without paying much attention towards it while preparing items like ghee etc, they cannot use the improved stoves, since it uses thin wood which burns up quickly and thus they have to use thick wood in the traditional stove where it keeps on burning for a long period of time 

FGD - Kaya For heating water both type of stoves are used, traditional and the  improved

but more preference is given to the traditional one since the water is heated up much faster comparatively to the improved stove, which is the most important parameter for the winter.

Advantages of the Cookstove -  According to women the best part about it is regarding its portability, due to

its light weight, can be carried easily around the house and food can be prepared outside as well inside the house due to very less smoke.

the best use of the improved stoves according to women is during the monsoon and the summer season, everything can be cooked easily on it, since water required for heating is very less it can heated easily on it.

About the Collection of wood - There is a single forest which surrounds the whole village which is huge but the women of Paanva and the women of Govindpura go to different parts of it, which eventually results in difference in distance travelled by them, while the women of govindpura travel about 3-4 kilometers for collecting wood, the women of paanva travel about 7-8 kilometers to do the same, they have their cattle along with them, also a good decision on the part of the women is that they go in groups of 5-6 or 7-10 which makes their job less risky.Most of the women collect their wood and only 1-2 families were found where wood was bought from the camel person. 

FGD - Kaya

About the usage of wood, there was a slight difference in the answers we got from the women using the improved stoves and those who aren't, those with the improved stoves, the usage depends also depends upon the season going on and the weather but it was noticed that during winters(this season) the wood quantity used is similar for both types of women since the women using improved stoves also use the traditional stoves and wood burnt is more or less the same, but in case of summer and monsoon the usage of wood drastically drops down for improved stove users, thus their collect lasts much longer than the traditional stove users.

Monitors of Seva Mandir who helped us – Meera Bai and Havji Ram

FGD - Patiya

Patiya is a Village in Girwa Tehsil in Udaipur District of Rajasthan State, India. It belongs to Udaipur Division. It is located 50-55 KM towards South from District head quarters Udaipur, 50 minute drive on a bike. Hindi and Mewari are the languages spoken and the village has a huge tribal population mostly constituting of the Meena's with around 200-250 families.

Patiya is a village where there is scarcity of electricity in most of the houses, not that electric lines are not there, but people are lazy enough to fill the forms for the connection. The condition of water is fine, every house has a hand pump in the 1 km radius, though they are efficient mostly in the monsoon, when ground level water is high, otherwise water is drawn from wells for all purposes. Sanitation facilities are there but , final work has not been done on them, due to which they are out of use.

FGD - Patiya Wood Collection – Interestingly it was found during the discussion that many

of the families collect wood from their own farm land on daily basis and do not have to go the forest for a long period of one month during the winters, these families have the improved stoves telling that less amount of wood is used. Rest all the women have to travel around 4-5 kilometers to collect wood from the forest. The day for such women starts at 6 in the morning and they return to their houses after collecting wood between 12 and 1 pm.

Information regarding the stoves – All the women using stoves had the same and only problem regarding the stove which was you cannot cook thick crust Roti’s made out of corn and wheat which is the staple diet of the people , thus they have to ultimately use the traditional stoves also. This was the problem primarily faced in Jaabla, a village 10 kms ahead of Patiya, where the project is just beginning to take shape.

It was found that most of the families in the village who have received the stoves have only got the smaller stove and waiting for the larger stove so that it Is easier for them to cook other food items easily, this is the case of Jaabla, where the discussion was held extensively.

Benefits of using the Cookstoves (Explained to the women during the FGD)

Social1. Women have to go on less number of trips for wood collection2. Since very less smoke is emitted, it improves the overall health of the children. Environmental1. Reduction in cutting of forest land for wood2. It improves the local and the collectively the global environment as less

carbon emissions takes place so lesser amount of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.

Economical1. Less money spend on labour for buying wood.2. Reduction in medical expenditure incurred by respiratory, eye and other health

hazards caused due to fuelwood collection and burning

Survey/Questionnaire Main points from the survey. Type of wood mostly used in Kaya is Babool, Khakra and Emna whereas

wood used in Patiya is Khakra, Godan, Kanjri. On an average, women in Kaya have to travel 4-5 kms to collect

wood and it takes about 5-6 hours daily to do this task while on the other hand in Patiya the women have to travel only 2-3 kms to collect wood since the forest is nearby and thus the time requires by them is also less which is around 3-4 hours.

Kerosene consumption has been reduced since the inception of improved stoves but many families still use for lighting of lamps, and giving ignition to the wood used. Kerosene supply is regulated since it only given to the BPL families at 3L per month from the rashan shop and it is totally consumed, even the APL families have to buy some kerosene for daily uses and their consumption is similar at around 2-3 Liters per month.

The main information about the families found was that the main occupation was agriculture and agriculture labour and the average annual income of the family was around 15000-20000 Rupees.

Survey/Questionnaire The primary fuel used for cooking food for their family and other activities is

wood, but they also use fodder for ignition and cow dung for heating the water and cooking food for their cattle.

In Kaya, mostly families have the complete set i.e bigger and the smaller stove, whereas in Jaabla, a village 10 kms ahead of Patiya, where the project has begun to take shape, families have received only 1 stove, due to which they have to face some problems. Due to its light weight, the stoves are used inside as well as outside the house, but the most of the families using traditional stoves use their stoves outside the houses so the smoke does not accumulate causing suffocation.

On an average it was found that, a family of 4-5 members requires 45-50 kilograms of wood per week which in their language is around 3 Bharas and each Bhara last for around 2-3 days, if they don’t have any guests on visit, this the scenario in both the villages for families with the improved stoves, on the other hand families with the traditional stove require just the double amount which is around 100 kilograms of wood (6-7 Bharas) and each Bhara last for a single day.

Survey/Questionnaire It was found that every woman requires at least 45 minutes to prepare food

for their family which includes preparing lunch and boiling water which is again done simultaneously on the traditional stove, during winters where large amount of hot water is required and thus heavy consumption takes place.

Wood Weighing Test The adult equivalent for the complete survey and test comes out to be 4.342. The adult equivalent is

based on PCIA guidelines, wherein standard adult equivalent for male, female and children respectively were of 1, 0.85 and 0.5.

The total male adults were 34, female adults were 31 and children below 18 were 65. Adult Equivalent = { (34/18)*1 + (31/18)*0.85 + (36/18)*2 } = 4.342. The average consumption of wood in tonnes/household/year is 1.02. To calculate the above value, average consumption of wood is taken out for every household in kg/day, the

value is multiplied by 365 and divided by the adult equivalent of that household and 1000 to convert into tonnes.

B(old) = Quantity of woody biomass used in the absence of the project activity in tonnes = 4.4268 tonnes per household.

B(old) = (Adult Equivalent * Avg. Consumption of wood) = (4.342 * 1.02) = 4.4268 E(old) = Efficiency of the system being replaced = 0.1 E(new)= Efficiency of the system being deployed as part of the project activity as determined using

the Wood Weighing Test that is Greenway Improved Stoves which has a efficiency of 32.098 %. NCV(biomass) = Net calorific value of the non-renewable biomass that is substituted = IPCC default

for wood fuel, 0.015 TJ/tonne, corresponds to 4.167 MWh/t. Energy Savings = B(old) * { 1 – (E(old)/E(new)} * 4.167 = 4.4268 * ( 1 – (0.1/0.32) ) * 4.167 =12.681

MWh/household.

Wood Weighing Test To calculate Emission Reductions during the year, ER(y) = B(y)savings * f(NRB)y *NCV(biomass) * EF(projected fossil fuel)

Where:ER(y) = Emission reductions during the year y in tCO2eB(y)savings = Quantity of woody biomass that is saved in tonnesf(NRB)y = Fraction of woody biomass saved by the project activity in year y that can be established as non-renewable biomass.NCV(biomass) = Net calorific value of the non-renewable woody biomass that is substituted (IPCC default for wood fuel, 0.015 TJ/tonne)EF(projected fossil fuel) = Emission factor for the substitution of non-renewable woody biomass by similar consumers. Use a value of 81.6 tCO2/TJ

To calculate B(y)savings = B(old) * { 1 – (E(old)/E(new) } = 4.4268 * (1 – 0.1/0.32) = 3.0434 f(NRB)Y = NRB/(NRB+DRB) ; NRB = Non renewable Woody Biomass : DRB = Renewable Woody Biomass The value of DRB Is calculated using Sustainable extraction from plantations data which comes out to be

163144 tonnes/year. The value of NRB is calculated = (Adult Equivalent using Fuel wood * Fuel wood requirement per adult) –

Renewable Woody Mass NRB = (1872377 * 1.02) – 163144 = 1746680 tonnes/year. f(NRB) = 0.91 ER(y) = 3.0434 * 0.91 * 0.015 * 81.6 = 3.389 tCO2/ household/yr.

Conclusion The wood weighing test was executed successfully, since the test was

conducted in winters, there was an expected high consumption of wood even by families having the improved stove due to which a higher value of emission reductions generated (ER) but in comparison with the traditional stove it was very less. The average consumption of wood in tonnes/household/year is 1.02

According to our results, the emission reductions generated are much higher compared to that of the survey conducted in Kherwara and Rishabhdeo villages since the data and information collected by us for the test was only for 20 families and conducted during winters , where wood consumption is relatively much higher.

Families with improved stoves are very much satisfied and regular encouragement is been given to families with the traditional stove to take up the new stoves and a change can be seen not just based on the numerical value but also when we talked to the different types of families.

Kaya and Patiya 

Kaya and Patiya

Survey : Questionnaire

Weighing Test

Thank you !!!!