[Stoves] Fwd: Winrock/U.S. EPA webinar “Cookstoves for Productive Uses” proceedings now available!

Tue Apr 18 01:39:19 CDT 2017

Ron:

Thank you.

Something sensible at long last.

For some 20 years I have been arguing that the obsession with "rural poor
households" and "saving trees" is entirely misplaced in the search for
markets. Commercial/institutional/community cooking has the financial
incentives, adoption skills, and culinary expertise to adopt modern biomass
stoves. That kind of cooking has an organized labor force - a manager
ordering servants paid a pittance - and can separate tasks according to
stoves, have a higher capacity utilization, thus improving the IRR.
Besides, these stoves are good enough collateral for SME loans.

I might study this "sub-sector" around here in the coming year. "Productive
uses" should have been top on ETHOS agenda, don't you think? I will come
next year with "Clean cookstoves for eating out and takeouts".

Same with post-harvest drying and processing - distilling, smoking. More
could be done for dairy products if bulk milk chillers are available.

Neglect of this market has only meant that most of it worldwide - including
street food hawkers all over India (even remote rural areas now boast of
serving "Chinees Food"; I can send pictures) -- has been taken over by LPG
and electricity. (Yes, there are vendors around the block here selling
"American Corn" roasted on inefficient - without liner - charcoal stoves.
Charcoal costs about 50 USc/kg.)

Whoever said at the Webinar - "A big challenge is the resistance of
households to adopt a new technology for cooking. One way to overcome this
would be to distribute cooked food via restaurants or centralized kitchens,
where only a few people can be trained to cook for many." - gets my
gratitude.

Changing the mindsets is not easy, though. In two countries - one each in
Africa and Pacific Islands - investors came asking for technological and
financial assistance for biogas in abattoirs, and cleaner wood ovens in
bakeries. Donors and stovers are both stuck in "poor households" rather
than market promotion that can ease logistics of delivering knowledge,
finance, and equipment.

Some 50 years ago around here, a housewife in a village already engulfed
into this city started selling packs of 25 dry flatbreads of local variety.
Plus some fried snacks. I would walk over and buy them. Now her family has
three fancy shops in this city, and there are hundreds of shops selling
hundreds of varieties of such dry foods - and some wet ones.

In India, solar induction stoves and solar refrigerators, air-conditioners
may be closer to capturing this "food services" market than most of the
stoves showcased at ETHOS.

Nikhil

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nikhil Desai
(India +91) 909 995 2080
*Skype: nikhildesai888*

On Tue, Apr 18, 2017 at 6:29 AM, Ronal W. Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
wrote:

> List:
>
> This was sent only to attendees.  This is probably of interest to some
> list members.
>
> Ron
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> *From: *"Moderator, Cookstoves/Indoor Air" <CookStovesandIndoorAir@
> winrock.org>
> *Subject: **Winrock/U.S. EPA webinar “Cookstoves for Productive Uses”
> proceedings now available!*
> *Date: *April 17, 2017 at 2:25:10 PM MDT
> *To: *"Moderator, Cookstoves/Indoor Air" <CookStovesandIndoorAir@
> winrock.org>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Cookstoves for Productive UsesMarch 16, 2017*
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
> Thank you for your interest in the Winrock International and U.S. EPA
> webinar "*Cookstoves for Productive Uses*" with Initiative Développement,
> Institutional Stove Solutions (InStove) and SNV Netherlands Development
> Organisation. This email is to inform you that you can now find the
> webinar proceedings at www.pciaonline.org/webinars.
>
> Here you will find a full recording of the webinar as well as the
> presentation slides and written Q&A.
>
>
> Please stay tuned for news on upcoming webinars, and feel free to contact
> moderator at cookstovesandindoorair.org with any questions.  We look forward
> to our continued collaboration with you in promoting high quality, clean
> and efficient cooking technologies and fuels.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Winrock cookstoves and indoor air team
>
>
>
> The information in this message, including any attachments, is the
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