[Stoves] FWD: Wood fuels key to easing food insecurity situation in sub-Saharan Africa

[Cookswell Jikos]

''After poring over the literature, Mendum and Njenga reported that little
previous empirical research into wood burning in sub-Saharan Africa has
been conducted, so policy makers have scant data to guide them in
formulating best practices for sustainable biomass production and
consumption. In their study, published this month in Facets, they have some
recommendations.

They suggest creating financial policy to support wood-burning systems and
developing agroforestry to ease the burden on wood gatherers. In rural
areas, encourage the planting of trees and then pruning them to use the
branches for firewood. As a result, more trees would be in place and people
could care for trees and collect firewood on their own properties instead
of carrying it long distances.

"That means all the negative impacts of hauling wood on women's backs would
be eliminated," Mendum said.

They also recommend conducting more research on the complex issues that
connect the use of women's time, environmental degradation and competition
for agricultural nutrients. There are a host of other factors surrounding
wood-fuel energy use in sub-Saharan Africa that remain poorly understood,
Mendum said.

This research gap will not be filled as long as wood-fuel use remains
ignored because the assumption is being made that a 21st-century economy
must move up the energy ladder, the researchers concluded. Wood fuel is
widely used, it has a long history of use, and there are food cultural
barriers, widespread poverty and daunting geographic conditions that make
other forms of fuel unpopular or unavailable.

"We shouldn't wait until we know the exact nutritional or agricultural
productivity impacts of wood-fuel use—that's information that we may never
have the capacity to fully collect," Mendum said. "It is important to
expand the work being done on improving wood-fuel
<https://phys.org/tags/fuel/> systems with clear attention paid to the
impacts of such improvements on food security and agricultural
productivity."
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-wood-fuels-key-easing-food.html#jCp




Teddy Kinyanjui
Sustainability Director



             <https://www.facebook.com/CookswellJikos>
<https://www.instagram.com/cookswelljikos>
<https://twitter.com/cookswelljikos?lang=en>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20180301/abab6124/attachment.html>