Assessment of Energy Performance, User’s Preference and Willingness to Pay for Improved Cookstoves in West Shewa Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is the third largest traditional biomass fuel user in the world for household energy generation. A majority (96.8%) of households in Ethiopia relies on traditional open fires (three stone fires) or stoves without a chimney hood or grate. This traditional inefficient three-stone cooking along with extensive population growth resulted in a great loss of forest biodiversity, land degradation, loss of atmospheric quality, environmental pollution and affecting people’s health. The government has planned to produce and distribute ‘9million fuel-efficient cook stoves in Ethiopia by January 2018 and 31million stoves by 2030’. Nonetheless, surprisingly little is known about what user\'s like about these improved cook stoves(ICS); its shortcomings, and effectiveness in fuel saving; smoke emission reduction, and cooking time reduction. The main aim of this stud was to assess energy performance, user’s preference and willingness to pay for ICS in the study areas. The sample size of the study was 385 households. Data were collected by conducting field discrete choice survey, focus group discussion, key informant interview and Controlled Cooking Tests (CCT). Percentage, means, standard deviation, two-sample t-test, and conditional logit and the multi-nomial logit models were employed for data analysis purpose. The result from controlled cook test reveals that. mirt stove has fuel saving potential over three stones by 54.83%compared with a traditional three-stone stove with little or no increase in cooking time. And the discrete choice data analysis reveals the households have a strong preference for improved stoves, but are willing to pay (WTP) about $7.75 and $5.25 for realistic reductions in smoke emissions and fuel needs on average, respectively, or about half of the price of less expensive ICS. Still, preferences for stove attributes are highly varied, and related to household characteristics (e.g., gender of household head, patience and risk preferences). Results demonstrate that various demographic differences affect the valuation of ICS, as households with few females and children are willing to pay more for new stoves. The policy community must therefore support invigorated supply chain with complementary infrastructure investments, foster experimentation with products, encourage continued applied research and knowledge generation, and provide appropriate incentives to consumers, if ICS distribution is to be scaled up.