More Maendeleo Stoves

by Mrs G Zzioki, District Home Economics Officer, District Agricultural Office, Machalcos District, Kenya

Machakos District is one of the 6 districts which make up Eastern Province of Kenya with an estimated population of 2 million people and 187,334 farm families. It has an area of 14,183 km², with an agricultural potential ranging from high potential, basically found in hilly masses, to low agricultural potential found in lowlands.

FIGURE

The District experiences a bimodal rainfall regime whereby the short rains (October to December) are usually more reliable than the long rains (March to July). The average annual rainfall is about 800 mm.

The District area which consists of forests is only about 3% of the total. The rate at which forests are diminishing in Machakos is very high compared to the rate of planting new trees. Forests are cleared to create a suitable environment for the ever increasing population, either small towns or farmland.

FIGURE

The women within the district travel a long distance in search of fuelwood. This consumes a lot of precious time that would have been used for doing other productive activities such as fanning. Appropriate technology introduced the improved stove as a better solution to saving fuelwood. This will assist in fuelwood saving and reduce the burden of collecting fuelwood by a half and also save money.

The extension message on awareness of fuelwood saving stoves is passed on at meetings with women's groups, field days, demonstrations and home visits etc.

The adoption of the Maendeleo stoves in the District is taking up very well, as all the 10 Divisions have carried out demonstrations on the stoves. In the short time since the programme started, that is from the period of December '91, to date the District has been able to disseminate 570 stoves and there is a pending order for about 500 liners. .

Stove Journal Profile

Changing /illages

Changing Villages is the journal of CORT - Consortium on Rural Technology D- 320, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi - 110 092 INDIA. This replaces Cookstove News.

CORT is the focal point of FWD for the Indian subcontinent.

Editor: Mr Y K Sharma

First Issue: May-June 1979, Bi-monthly

Format: 15cm x 23cm - 60/80 pages

Subscriptions: Rs 75/ (within India) US$ 30/ (outside India)

Circulation: India and Western countries

Language: English

Target Readership: Those working on research and extension of Appropriate Technologies including stoves.

Subjects covered: This journal on rural technologies serves as a forum for technologists to publish studies and articles on the innovations and developments they are working on. It also contains accounts of programmes of its members' organisations as well as other non-governmental and governmental programmes in the field of appropriate technologies including stoves.

RWEPA, c/o KENGO, Mwanzi Rd, Westlands, P O Box 48197, Nairobi, KENYA

Editor: Susan Matindi

First Issue: October 1989 Quarterly

Format: 4 page newsletter, A4 format
Subscription: Free

Circulation: Africa and Western Countries

Language: English

Target Readership: Stove workers in the field and in NGOs and government, and commercial institutions.

Subjects covered: Important energy events happening in the western Kenya region and elsewhere, ea. forthcoming events in the region, fuel substitution, energy experts' views on topical subjects and a discussion/letters column.

This newsletter is funded by the Government of The Netherlands.

CORT...CONSORTIUM ON RURAL TECHNOLOGY
D-320, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-110092