[Stoves] ***SPAM*** Re: ***SPAM*** Cooking with crop waste (less smoke and makes biochar) and burning crop waste in the field (less smoke and makes biochar) - New training video

[Ronal Larson]

Kevin, Stoves +  2 list ccs

	These two short surveys below are quite surprising. Surprising in being so alike and positive.   I think there are several PhD theses in following and expanding these first results.   Here are some of the questions I’d like to see answered (we can’t wait for a thesis - but still think there is plenty of new †thesis material here - to better understand the whole cookstove world.).   The following questions applying to many possible respondents.

	1.  Respondent #5 (Grace Kikuka) said:
	
"Warms the ground that elongates the cooking"
       This suggests the possibility of finding other ways to exploit this stored energy feature.  
       Was this after removing the char?  
        Might she have placed the cook-pot in the hole?  
        Might she have had a pot support means (bricks?) that was helpful?   
       Might she have had a hole lining ?  (bricks?)

"Variety of fuels can be used"
			What did she (anyone) use and were any preferred over corn stalks? 
			Were they applied sequentially or in the same cook session? 
			 How did they compare to corn stalks? 
			 Might she have used cobs?  
			 She reported 32 minutes - was there much variation for her times (if any)?
	
    2.   The cooking times varied from 25 to 32 minutes.   
			This is pretty tight, but can we explain the differences?  
			All 25 cm cubic holes?  
			More pile height above ground for the longer cook times?  
			And less for the short times? 
			 Different fuels?  
			Cooks stacked fuel differently?

     3.   Any cook intentionally changing the hole size (to get shorter or longer cook times?   
			Anyone dug two holes?  
			Same size?

     4.  Any cook intentionally moving to a rectangular rather than square pit?  
			(maybe thinking they’d like to use two cook pots?)

	5.   The usual TLUD questions - 
			what weight of stalks and 
			what weight of produced char?
			what quality char?
			How much better was indoor air quality over usual 3-stone approach?

	6.  How soon was char used and how?   
			seedling response? 
			 any comparative tests (with and without char?
			was there preference for combusting the char over use as biochar?
			did present users of biochar react same as never users?

	7. What experiences on using urine?
			what percentage using and not using?
			why or why not?

	8.   How has their experience gone in training others?  
			What problems came up?  
			Any negatives from trainers or trainees?

	9.  There was a question on failure of the hole wall.  Options to avoid wall failure are:
		give up on cooking with holes
		dig new holes as needed
		use a metal wall. (what cost?   who supplied?t)
		use bricks. (already done - any negatives?
		use one or a few  fired clay pieces
		use unfired clay
		other?
	
	10.  How fast does news travel?   
			Days before information is forwarded, if any?   
			Any way to identify reasons for message transmittal or non-transmittal?  
			Is there a way to guesstimate user doubling time?

	11.  Is there any group that will be likely to try to slow this practice down?  
		 	Sellers of commercial stoves? 
			 Or is this stove only likely to be seen favorably by present users only of 3-stone method?  
			Is this considered by users really new - or just small improvement? 
			Is there a way to more exactly quantify differences between this and traditional methods?

	12.  Can the various positives that were identified be ranked in order of importance to new adoptees?    
			Is char-making more or less important than saving time?   
			What would new users like different?

	13.  NOT to present and future AgWa user and research community - but rather to all stove list members.  What other questions or suggestions to Kevin and future researchers come to mind?

Ron


> On Oct 12, 2021, at 9:45 AM, K McLean <kmclean56 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Here are reports from two quick surveys of a total of 31 women trained to burn maize stalks in holes in three stone cookstoves.  Notably, almost all are using maize stalks for all meals.  And, of those, all state they will never cook with wood again.
> Malawi report <https://docs.google.com/document/d/11aJkpedFAaehelMCKB-1Yl7dJSE5OBBgLNudjsBG1kw/edit?usp=sharing>
> Uganda report <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OqFybrUeG-su6C7C_Egz_oZ1TO6ccYUJ/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112234683056230543280&rtpof=true&sd=true>
> On Fri, Oct 8, 2021 at 2:12 PM K McLean <kmclean56 at gmail.com <mailto:kmclean56 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Here is a new training video that we have started disseminating in Africa:  https://youtu.be/DmzQFCp2kNI <https://youtu.be/DmzQFCp2kNI>
	<snip>

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