Fuel choice behaviour of tribal households: an exploratory analysis

The study recommend that policy initiative should attempt at improving livelihood, subsidized LPG distribution policy, increasing the education level of the household members in tribal household and to create awareness about the environmental cost and health hazard of biomass fuel consumption in order to motivate the people towards the modern fuels.

International Journal of Management (IJM) Volume 11, Issue 2, February 2020, pp 175–180, Article ID: IJM_11_02_019 Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=11&IType=2 Journal Impact Factor (2020): 10.1471 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510 © IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed FUEL CHOICE BEHAVIOUR OF TRIBAL HOUSEHOLDS: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS Rabinjyoti Khataniar B.H.College, Howly, Assam, India Shahnaaz Benazir Cotton University, Guwahati, Assam, India Durba Dutta The Assam Royal Global University, Assam, India ABSTRACT Households’ fuel choice behaviour for cooking and heating depends upon number of socio-economic and demographic factors The multinomial logistic analysis expresses choice between three mutually exclusive and differentiated fuels for cooking and heating The likelihood ratio tests identifies variables like income of the household, education level (measured in terms of schooling year attended by the household members), price of modern fuel, etc as significant variables in determining households’ fuel choice behaviour The study recommend that policy initiative should attempt at improving livelihood, subsidized LPG distribution policy, increasing the education level of the household members in tribal household and to create awareness about the environmental cost and health hazard of biomass fuel consumption in order to motivate the people towards the modern fuels Keywords: Firewood consumption; Fuel choice; Modern fuel; Fuel substitution; MNL; Health hazard Cite this Article: Rabinjyoti Khataniar, Shahnaaz Benazir and Durba Dutta, Fuel Choice Behaviour of Tribal Households: An Exploratory Analysis International Journal of Management (IJM), 11 (2), 2020, pp 175–180 http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=11&IType=2 INTRODUCTION The behaviour of fuel choice in the household sector is a complex phenomenon determined by numbers of socio-economic and demographic factors, like family size, living standard, economic status of the household, urbanization, type of residence, age of the occupants, and literacy level, etc (Nnaji C E., Uzoma C C., Chukwu J O., 2010) The socio-economic status of household which increases the frequency of cooking and backing and family size is the most significant factors influencing amount of firewood consumption in the household http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 175 editor@iaeme.com Rabinjyoti Khataniar, Shahnaaz Benazir and Durba Dutta sector (Kebede, A., at al., 2015).The households with higher size are more likely to use kerosene and firewood The age of household head also has significant effect on the fuel choice ( Deshmukh, S., A Jinturkar and K Anwar, 2014) The livelihood of tribal people of Northeast is very much related to the nature (Nongbri, T, 1997) Forest is the main source of fuel and fodder for the tribals On the otherhand, modern sources of fuels are still out of reach for most of the rural tribal households of the Northeastern region Reasons can be attributed to low purchasing power, small requirement, non- availability etc As a result firewood has excessive application as fuel in villages as contrast to kerosene, electricity and natural gas (LPG) in towns and cities (Nanda, A K and S Khurana, 1995) Researchers identify excessive consumption of firewood as one of the primary cause of deforestation around Bio-fuels consumption also has serious health impact in the form of respiratory diseases, eye diseases, bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, chest infection etc (Laxmi, V., J Parikh, S Karmakar and P Dabrase , 2003) Energy substitution, though on the rise, is still insignificant in rural households of Northeast However till date, no systematic study has been conducted in the region to address the factors that determines household’s fuel choice behaviour The present study is an attempt in to fill the gap in knowledge The main objective of the study is to identify the factors that determine the choice of a particular type of fuel by the tribal households MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1 Description of Study Area The study area of the research comprises of three Northeastern states namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Nagaland The states were selected purposively Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland states were selected as the nearly all the households use firewood for cooking and heating purposes However it expected that there exist different types of rules and norms in extraction of forest product and hence different level of resource availability and degradation Assam is relatively a forest scare states amongst the state of Northeastern region The state is selected to see how people response to firewood scarcity 2.2 Sampling Procedure A multi-stage sampling technique was used for selection of households of the selected villages In the first stage three states were selected purposively In the second stage, two districts from each state were selected purposively The districts were selected to represent different community and different altitude At stage III, some tribal households dominated villages were selected from each district randomly There is a rural urban dichotomy in the nature of energy consumption due to access rule, availability constraint, demand and supply conditions, etc Taking into consideration of this dichotomy, our samples were collected both from the rural as well as urban areas Altogether two semi-urban town and 17th number of tribal villages were selected for ultimate sampling It is assumed that villages nearer to the urban centers have a choice in favour of commercial energy whereas in the interior villages bio-mass fuels are predominantly used for cooking and other purposes In the next stage, altogether 361 sample households were selected by a stratified random sampling technique of which 77 households were selected from the districts of Assam, 134 households were selected from the districts of Nagaland and 150 numbers of households were selected from the districts of Arunachal Pradesh Once villages were selected, the primary data was collected from the household using a semi-structured schedule http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 176 editor@iaeme.com Fuel Choice Behaviour of Tribal Households: An Exploratory Analysis 2.3 Analytical Methods To capture the significant variables that believed to influence a household’s choice of cooking and heating fuel in rural tribal households, a Multinomial Logistic (MNL) Model is adopted In the context of surveyed area of Northeast the households were observed using three different types of fuels for cooking and heating purposes These are firewood and chips, firewood with LPG as supplementary, and only LPG Thus, the model expresses choice between three mutually exclusive and differentiated fuels cooking and heating Evidence that has been gathered in many countries does not support the notion that a transition from wood-based energy to fuels such as LPG follows any regularised pattern Decisions related to energy consumption and fuel type are strongly influenced by accessibility, affordability and the convenience of the fuel These criteria are closely related to one other and also depend on household income The decision-making process is complex with economic and technical aspects interlinked with social and cultural issues (see Table 1.1) Cooking with wood fuels, for instance, is so deeply ingrained in many local cultures that other fuels have little appeal, even when the potential health and environmental benefits are recognised by users Furthermore, the prevalence of wood fuel in many developing countries can be explained by the fact that it is still the most readily available, affordable or even costfree cooking and heating fuel 2.4 The Model The model started with an individual utility function which selects a particular fuel type for maximizing its expected utility Thus the ith individual’s expected utility takes the form: Where, i= 1, 2, 361 Let ϒ be the dependent variable, the fuel choice for cooking and heating with firewood as reference group Let Pr (Yi=j) be the probability of choosing fuel-type for cooking and heating j is the number of fuel in the choice set (j=1,2,3) and j=1 for reference fuel firewood Let be the vector of predictors and is a vector of estimated parameters Thus the household’s fuel choice behavior can be presented as =∑ j= 1, 2, The random distribution terms are independently and identically distributed and odds of choosing an alternative fuel remain unaffected The probability of choosing a type of fuel does not change respective to one alternative or more Is the vector of individual characteristics It includes all the variables such as household, economical, demographic and geographical which may affect household’s fuel choice behaviour for cooking and heating RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The descriptive statistics of the predictors in terms of mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values were calculated to check the existence of outlier in such values of the variable, if any The likelihood ratio chi-square estimated at 223.74 with a p-value < 0.01 tells us that our model as a whole fits significantly better than an empty model (i.e., a model with no predictors) The likelihood ratio tests are presented in the table-I The significant variable can be identified depending upon p-value If it is less than 05, then that variable has a significant overall effect on the outcome If it is more than 05, then that variable does not have a http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 177 editor@iaeme.com Rabinjyoti Khataniar, Shahnaaz Benazir and Durba Dutta significant overall association with the outcome Accordingly, variables income of the household, education level (measured in terms of schooling year attended by the household members), price of modern fuel are found significant in determining households’ fuel choice behaviour Table 1: Likelihood Ratio Tests Model Fitting Criteria Likelihood Ratio Tests Effect -2 Log Likelihood of Reduced Model Chi-Square df Sig Intercept 315.387 9.386 009 FSIZE 307.054 1.053 591 PRICE_LPG 326.615 20.614 000 AGEHH 310.800 4.799 091 SCH_YEAR 331.940 25.939 001 INCOME 385.483 79.482 001 Note: FSIZE = Family size; PRICE_LPG: Price of LPG; AGEHH: Age of head of the household; SCH_YEAR: Average year of schooling of the household members; INCOME: Household income (Rs./capita/month Source: Self calculated by the author based on field survey data Table-II gives the estimates of β coefficient of the multinomial logit model, their level of significance (p-value) and adjusted odds ratio (in Exp(β) column) The output has two parts, labeled with the categories of the outcome variable fueltype They correspond to the two equations below: ln{P(fueltype=LPG &firewood)}{P(fueltype=firewood only)} = b10+ b11(FSIZE) + b12(PRICE_LPG) + b13(AGEHH) + b14(EDUCATION) + b15(INCOME) -(1) ln{P(fueltype=LPG only)}{P(fueltype=firewood only)} = b20 + b21(FSIZE) + b22(PRICE_LPG) + b23(AGEHH) + b24(SCH_YEAR) + b25(INCOME) -(2) Table 2: Estimation of multinomial logit model for tribal households’ cooking and heating fuel choice Source Coefficient Intercept FSIZE PRICE_LPG AGEHH SCH_YEAR INCOME 7.615 -.086 -.026 015 091 001 Intercept FSIZE PRICE_LPG AGEHH SCH_YEAR INCOME 59.395 -.797 -.121 -.163 164 001 std error LPG and Firewood 3.338 139 007 017 020 000 LPG only 38.370 1.141 074 108 091 000 Sig Exp(β) 023 533 000 376 000 000 1.090 975 1.015 1.095 1.001 122 485 103 131 071 023 451 886 850 1.178 1.001 Source: Field Survey, 2016-17 http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 178 editor@iaeme.com Fuel Choice Behaviour of Tribal Households: An Exploratory Analysis The significance level of β coefficient and Exp( ) show that households’ choice of fuel type in favour of a combination of firewood and LPG against firewood and chips determines by income of the household, education level of the household members and price of modern fuel like LPG A one-unit increase in the variable INCOME is associated with a 001 increase in the relative log odds of being choosing a ‘firewood and LPG’ as fuel for cooking and heating against ‘firewood and chips’ The relative log odds of being use ‘firewood and LPG’ instead of ‘firewood and chips’ will increase by 0.91 with unit change in mean years of schooling Firewood substitution is inversely associated with price of modern fuel like LPG The relative log odds of being use of firewood and LPG in place of firewood and chips decrease by 0.026 with unit change in the price of LPG While substitution of traditional fuel, i.e firewood and chips by modern source of fuel like LPG is concerned, only income of the household found to influence substitution significantly The estimates show that a unit increase in the variable INCOME associated with 001 increases in relative log odds of using LPG against Firewood CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATION The study reveals important factors that determine household’s choice of cooking fuel As per MNL estimation, the income of the household, level of education, and price of modern fuel have significant influence in determining the probability of switching from firewood to a combination of LPG and firewood by tribal households, whereas only income of the household found as significant variable determining household’s fuel choice in favour of a cleaner fuel like LPG against firewood Accordingly, the study would like to draw the following recommendations      Firewood substitution is highly demanded considering the problems of forest depletion and health impact Policy initiative should attempt at improving livelihood, subsidized LPG distribution policy and increasing the education level of the household members in tribal household Because, these variables were found positively associated with firewood substitution There is an urgent need to create awareness about the environmental cost and health hazard of biomass fuel consumption in order to motivate the people towards the modern fuels Another important finding of the study is that in the rural areas people are reluctant to pay for commercial fuels as the firewood can be gathered free at cost As a result, the Government policies of subsidizing commercial fuels sufficiently so as to make people attractive will hardly yield good result The consumption of firewood by tribal households can be minimised by by popularizing scientific Chullhas Improved wood stoves not only raise energy efficiency, typically by 30-50 per cent but also reduce indoor pollution by a factor of 20 to 100, to levels well within WHO guidelines (Anderson, 1996) In the rural tribal households of Northeast, the improved end-use technologies, which reduce the energy requirement for any given level of energy output, have the potential to reduce pressure on common forest However, this type of techniques should be adopted with special care For example, the households often find difficulties with this type of stove because certain foods cannot be cooked on it Thus, it implies that the technology dissemination programes need to pay careful intention to local food and cooking habits Hence, it is suggested that steps may be taken to renovate the scientific Chullhas to meet the local needs and popularize it among the rural households in order to save energy ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The research paper is an outcome of a Research Project titled ‘Firewood consumption in the household sector of India’s Northeast –its implication to health and deforestation’, undertaken by the author and sponsored by ICSSR, New Delhi vide F.No.02/40/2016-17/RPR The http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 179 editor@iaeme.com Rabinjyoti Khataniar, Shahnaaz Benazir and Durba Dutta authors are thankfully acknowledging ICSSR, New Delhi for extending financial support for undertaking the research REFERENCES [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Deshmukh, S., A Jinturkar and K Anwar (2014) Determinants of Household Fuel Choice Behavior in Rural 1st International Congress on Environmental, Biotechnology, and Chemistry Engineering (pp 128-133) Singapore: IPCBEE vol.64 Kebede, A., at al (2015) Effect of firewood energy consumption of households on deforestation in Debis Watershed Ambo District, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia World Applied Sciences Journal,, 1154-1162, IDOSI Publications khuri, Rakesh (1991) Fuelwood consumption pattern of different tribal communities living in Arunachal Pradesh in North-East India Bioresource Technology, 291-296 Laxmi, V., J Parikh, S Karmakar and P Dabrase (2003) Household Energy, Women’s Hardship and Health Impact in Rural Rajasthan Energy for Sustainable Development, Vol VII, No Nanda, A K and S Khurana (1995) From Hearth to Earth: Use of Natural Resources for Cooking in Indian Households Demography India, , Vol 24, No 1, 33-58 Nnaji C E., Uzoma C C., Chukwu J O (2010) The role of renewable energy resources in poverty alleviation and sustainable development in Nigeria Continental Journal of Social Sciences 3: 31–37, 31-37 Nongbri, T (1997) Land, Forest Right and Development Policies in North East India The Eastern Anthropologist, , Vol 50, No 2, 113-137 Sandip Deshmukh, S., A Jinturkar and K Anwar (20147) Determinants of Household Fuel Choice Behavior in Rural 1st International Congress on Environmental, Biotechnology, and Chemistry Engineering, (pp 128-133) Singapore: IPCBEE vol.64 http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 180 editor@iaeme.com ... editor@iaeme.com Fuel Choice Behaviour of Tribal Households: An Exploratory Analysis The significance level of β coefficient and Exp( ) show that households’ choice of fuel type in favour of a combination of. .. editor@iaeme.com Fuel Choice Behaviour of Tribal Households: An Exploratory Analysis 2.3 Analytical Methods To capture the significant variables that believed to influence a household’s choice of cooking and... source of fuel and fodder for the tribals On the otherhand, modern sources of fuels are still out of reach for most of the rural tribal households of the Northeastern region Reasons can be attributed