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Traditional cooking devicesAuthors / contributers wanted! Do you have knowledge or experience in this topic? If you do, please consider writing something for this page...This page is 'under development'. Add your content here (remove this line). In rural households, food is generally cooked on clay stoves, called chulhas. The chulhas use biomass as fuel. A family of 5 to 6 persons requires about 8kg fuel every day. Surveys showed that, on an average, the domestic fuel consists mainly of agricultural residues and cattle dung, supplemented by wood to the extent of about 40%. The former is generated in the family farm, while the latter, consisting mainly of branches of trees, is collected in the neighbourhood. Even families who can afford modern fuels, prefer to use biomass becasue it is available free of cost. In forested regions, where the inhabitants are mainly Adivasis, the fuel consists almost exclusively of wood. The traditional chulhas are very wasteful. They use only 10% of the total heating potential of the fuel burnt in them. Another disadvantage of the traditional chulhas is that they produce a lot of smoke, soot and unburnt volatile organic matter, which not only blacken the pots and the walls of the kitchen, but also pollute the indoor air and adversely affect the health of the householders. Housewives and infants are affected the most by these pollutants, because they are maximally exposed to the flue gases. [top] [end]Related topics[top] [end]External links and references[top] [end]ContributorsUser:Dr Karabi Dutta 16 October 2003 Categories: Traditional Stoves| Cooking | |
Page created:
16 October 2003; Last edited:
10 June 2008; Version: 4 | |
Pagename: TraditionalCookingDevices @HEDON: GGAA | |
