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National Fuelwood Conservation Programme by R M Amerasekera
The N.F.C.P. consisted of the following five individual projects undertaken for Implementation by the Alternative Energy Development (A.E.D.) Unit of the Ceylon Electricity Board (C.E.B.).
Kalcutara and Colombo covering about half of the country. The activities of the Urban Stove Project was confined to the Colombo City and immediate suburbs while the other projects were mainly concentrated in the rural areas. The permanent project staff for the rural programme consisted of a Project Manager, 8 Coordinating Officers, 1 Technical Officer, 3 Drivers working full time, 18 Field Assistants employed on a hired basis and a Training Officer working full time on contract basis. The Urban Stove Project employed a full time Production Coordinator and a Marketing Coordinator on contract basis with part time service provided by the Project Manager. The administrative support was provided by the office staff of the AED Unit and the Accounts Branch of the CEB. [top] [end]The Rural ProgrammeThe services of 60 Assistant Government Agents and their subordinates numbering over 300, a large number of village level voluntary and Community Development Organisations were mobilised in the extension activities.73 potter families and 314 stove builders actively participated in production and installation activities of the project on a self employed basis. The approximate earnings of the 73 potters were Rs 1,240,000; the individual earnings ranging from Rs 1,500 and Rs 7,500 a month while the stove builders earned about Rs 920,600; the individual incomes per month ranging between Rs 300 and Rs 1,500. The number of stoves installed during the year 1987 was 65,029 as compared to 14,232 in 1985 and 29,967 in 1986. The target for 1987 was 78,000 stoves. Eighteen potters and 228 stove builders were trained during the year. Fourteen residential training programmes of four days duration were conducted to train the stove builders while site training was provided for the potters. Throughout the project area 3,595 demonstrations were performed as a part of sensitising activities. Several strategies were used for the dissemination depending on the circumstances prevailing in the area. 1. Extension using government officials particularly Assistant Government Agents (A.G.A.) and their subordinates (in a few cases District Agricultural Extension Officers using their subordinates). The District Co-ordinating Officer provides the stove liners to the A.G.A. who in turn distributes to his Extension Officers utilising his transport. Initial demonstrations are done by the project staff having the extension and installation activities co-ordinated by the Extension Officers who make use of the stove builder available in the area for installation activities. 2. AGA making use of the village level organisations for extension work instead of his subordinates. Mode of operation is the same as above. This is done when extension through government officials is ineffective. 3. District Coordinating Officer having direct links with the village level organisations who do the extension work. This strategy was adopted where AGA network was ineffective and also as a deliberate effort to transfer extension activities to non-government village level organisations. 4. DCO having direct links with the stove builders. In this method the stove builders do their own extension work for which the same incentive paid to the extension officer is paid to this in addition to the installation fees. Although, this requires more time and effort on the part of the DCO, it would have been a successful way for self sustaining stove activities. Nevertheless, this strategy had to be abandoned due to fear of "audit queries" that may be expected. 5. DCO organisers mass installation programmes using the project staff and stove builders. About 50 stoves are built a day. This was done where both the strategies using government officials and village organisers had failed.
B - Stoves Disseminated through voluntary organisations - 12401 C - Stoves Disseminated through Project Staff - 7930 No single strategy could be identified as the most effective as each had its own merits and demerits which depends on the circumstances. Throughout the project areas a subsidised price of Rs 15 was charged for the installation which was collected by the extension officer and paid to the stove builder through the A.G.A. or the village organisation. The liner was provided without a fee by the Project through the D.C.O. Rs 3 per stove for internal transport plus Rs 2 per stove for administration activity was paid to the respective A.G.A. or organisation and Rs 3 per stove for the extension activities. These incentives were paid by the Project Manager after scrutinising the reports sent by the respective officers or organisations. The most demoralising effect on the potters and the project staff is the inability to make suitable arrangement to pay the potters in time. In most cases it takes almost a month to provide cash to the potters. Remoteness of living places, limitation in the amount of cash allowed to be handled by the officers, danger of carrying large amount of cash to remote places, illiteracy of potters, delay in payment procedure contribute to this delay. Another major shortcoming in the programme activities is the inability to establish quality control methods. It is observed that dimensions are not always consistent. Stoves are, at times, underfired and fragile giving rise to high breakage rates. Efforts to introduce moulds have not been successful yet. Two lorries and eight motor cycles were provided for the project with funds made available under the Sri Lanka Netherlands Energy Programme. These facilities contributed immensely to the success of the project. Experiments were carried out to find an alternative insulation of the Sarvodaya stove; the raw materials of which cannot be found in certain areas. In these experiments cement and sand were used with a 1" layer of small quantities of clay and ash and, was found to be effective. It has the benefit of non-crack insulation and better appearance. Further evaluation will be carried out before extension begins in areas where anthill clay and cowdung are difficult to be found. [top] [end]Bilateral Urban Stove ProjectThe Urban stove project is being implemented in collaboration with the CISIR and the ITDG (UK). The project aims at developing the production capability of tile factories to produce 100,000 wood firing stoves per year and to establish a mechanism to market these stoves utilising the private sector institutions which already market ceramic products.Work on the project commenced in March, 1987, with the collection of base line data. Prior to the commencement of the project, a single pot ceramic stove with a grate and a single piece two-pot ceramic stove developed by the CISIR and CEB/Sarvodaya respectively, had been identified for dissemination in urban areas after extensive trials. The Sumagi tile factory which already had some experience in stove manufacturing and the necessary infra-structure with the technical back up of a ceramics consultant retired from the ceramics corporation, was selected to be the first producer. Training was provided by the ITDG staff on all production aspects. It was intended to use traditional methods of production using potters with the view to developing more modern methods to increase production levels at a later stage. At the beginning breakage rates during the drying and firing processes were extremely high since there was no proper supervision due to the delay in recruiting a production coordinator by the CEB. The biggest worry was the breakage of large number of stoves on the first day of use as reported by users. However, these shortcomings were quickly rectified with the appointment of a production co- ordinator and the provision of technical assistance to construct a new kiln. By the end of June the quality of stoves improved considerably and the production level reached about 30 stoves per day. In the meantime, promotion and marketing activities were carried out and links between the producer and wholesale distributers were established by the Marketing Coordinator. This created a large demand which could not be met without increasing production levels. Through a competition among the CEB employees the brand names of the two stoves were selected to be Anagi I and Anagi II. Although Sumagi was expected to increase production to about 50 a day, it was never realised. It, therefore, became necessary to train more tile factories to increase the production in order to reach the targets of the project. By this time Randetha tile factory was producing the same stoves and marketing on a small scale without any proper training and as a result the stoves were of a poor quality and did not have the correct dimensions which was also damaging for the programme. Proper training was provided to the Randetha tile factory staff and by the end of August, 25 stoves per day were produced and made available for marketing through the established channels. Training was also started at Eagle tile factory which had sufficient space ideally suited for large scale stove production. Owners of the factory too, were keen to produce stoves on a large scale making use of moulds and mechanical methods. However, these have been unsuccessful as the stoves could not be removed from the moulds without distortion. Nevertheless, work to develop a flypass method will continue. The drying of the parts and assembled stoves requires a lot of shelf space. However, because of the pressure on space and the relatively high demand for tiles at Sumagi, they stopped production of stoves. By the end of 1987, 3,587 stoves were marketed as against a target of 10,000 which indeed is not a very satisfactory progress. However, action has now been taken to train more tile factories. Initially, the factory price of the single one-pot stove was Rs 25 and the 2 pot stove was Rs 30, which were sold at the market for Rs 30 and Rs 40 respectively. Factory price was later increased -to Rs 30 and Rs 35 respectively, which are now being marketed at Rs 40 and Rs 45. This was done to provide a higher profit margin for the producers. Promotion and marketing activities have been deliberately curtailed until the production reaches a satisfactory level. The warranty scheme designed to replace stoves broken within two months of use, could not be formally established as the flexibility of transactions required for such a scheme cannot be accommodated within the framework of the government financial regulations without being subjected to "audit queries" even though the funds are provided by the ODA. However, the possibility exists for ITDG to implement this outside the financial framework of the CEB. The following reasons may have attributed to the limited success of the programme:
[top] [end]ConclusionsDespite the organisational problems and the general unrest in the country which to a small degree affected the progress of the programme, on the whole the programme output for the year 1987 was encouraging.There is evidence that the programme has created increased awareness and participation not only among the stove users but also among the planners, policy and decision makers. The improved stoves are now being perceived as an important intervention in the field of domestic energy conservation and as an effective means of improving health and hygenic levels of the people. Increased consumption of boiled water as a result of using an improved stove particularly the 2 pot stove can be cited in support of this trend. In addition to three ongoing Integrated Rural Development Programmes, the fourth I.R.D. stove project was started in 1988 in Monaragala District funded by the NORAD. The interest shown by the Project Directors of the respective l.R.D.P. to incorporate stove dissemination in their programmes, indicates the effectiveness and appropriateness of stove activities within the l.R.D. framework. The project activities since 1985 have given a wealth of experience and created a background necessary for self sustaining activities in the future. However, a new strategy needs to be developed either with complete or partial withdrawal of the subsidies making use of the infra-structure that has been developed so far in order to reach the objective of self sustenance. [top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 15: Stove Progress in Kenya and Sri Lanka
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Page created:
28 August 2008; Last edited:
29 August 2008; Version: 0 | ||||||||||
Pagename: BP15:NationalFuelwoodConservationProgramme @HEDON: XFNA | ||||||||||
