Domestic use of biomass fuel in the rural Meghna floodplain areas of Bangladesh

doi:10.3832/ifor0551-003

Domestic use of biomass fuel in the rural Meghna floodplain areas of Bangladesh

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 3, Issue 5, Pages 144-149 (2010)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0551-003
Published: Sep 27, 2010 - Copyright © 2010 SISEF

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Rural households in the developing countries constitute the largest share of the biomass fuel consumption. It is also a major source of energy in the low income country. However, this energy consumption pattern varies from region to region. Different case studies on the biomass fuel consumption will certainly contribute to the understanding on the energy uses of a nation. The present study was conducted in the rural areas of the Meghna floodplain zone in Bangladesh, with a total of 80 sampled households, using the stratified random sampling technique through the semi-structured questionnaires from November 2008 through February 2009. Firewood, cowdung, leaves and twigs, branches, rice straw and rice husk were used as the biomass fuels mainly for the cooking purpose. Leaves and twigs were found as the dominant biomass fuel as 187 ± 25.69 (SE) kg month^-1 household^-1. The major source of biomass fuel collection was identified as the own homestead and agricultural lands, 74%. The households spent 14.56 ± 8.94 US$ month^-1 household^-1 for biomass fuels. The ratio of the total energy expenditure to the total income of the household was around 11%. But, the ratio of the biomass expenditure to the total energy expenditure of the households was 68%. Monthly income, land ownership and family size were found significantly influencing to the biomass energy expenditure. The study will be useful for the policy makers in the renewable energy, forestry and agriculture sector in Bangladesh.

Keywords

Demography and energy, Dominant biomass fuel, Energy expenditure, Forests, Sources of biomass fuels

Authors’ address

(1)

Forest Policy Laboratory, Shinshu University, 8304 Minamiminowa-Mura, Kami Ina Gun, 399-4598 Nagano-ken (Japan)

(2)

Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331 (Bangladesh)

Corresponding author

M Koike
makoike@shinshu-u.ac.jp

Citation

Akther S, Miah MD, Koike M (2010). Domestic use of biomass fuel in the rural Meghna floodplain areas of Bangladesh. iForest 3: 144-149. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0551-003

Paper history

Received: Mar 03, 2010
Accepted: Jul 15, 2010

First online: Sep 27, 2010
Publication Date: Sep 27, 2010
Publication Time: 2.47 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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