Adoption and Use of Improved Stoves and Biogas Plants in Rural India

Household air pollution remains a dominant health risk, particularly in South Asia. Increasing international attention has focused on improved cookstoves (ICS) as a vehicle for reducing household air pollution, regional environmental and climate impacts. Biogas plants are a type of improved cooking technology. However, dissemination programs for ICS (including biogas) have met with mixed results, and biogas plants often suffer from operational and structural challenges. This analysis of ICS adoption adds to the limited literature informing cookstove dissemination programs. In a sample of households from Odisha, India, we find households with ICS have higher socioeconomic and educational status, while households with only a traditional stove spend more money on fuel and more time in hospitals treating respiratory disease. Hours of ICS use is significantly associated with less time spent collecting fuel and fewer days in the hospital for respiratory disease. We find that household receipt of higher subsidies for plant construction; livestock ownership and less time collecting wood are associated with ownership of biogas plants that remain functional. We also add to the scant field evidence of ICS impacts on fuel use and confirm that ownership of ICS including biogas stoves is associated with a significant decrease in fuelwood consumption.