Of smokeless stoves and giving back to nature

It usually requires one person to take the initiative and bring about much needed change against the odds. The impact of such a change has a much stronger effect when it happens in a rural area where habits and old customs dominate society.

A farmer from Ponda, Mahesh Shilkar has been hailed for his progressive ways.  Mahesh is a full time farmer with his livelihood dependent on farming. He was a Board Member of Goa Bagayatdar Sahakari K.V.S Ltd, Ponda. He has been trying new things on his farm. He is into organic farming. He was active in promoting the Watershed Development Program in his village through Gram Vikas Kendra, Savoiverem. 

While Mahesh has a long list of achievements to his name, recently he decided to do away with the way food is traditionally cooked in rural areas and now uses a smokeless stove, thereby saving the use of firewood. “Use of less fuel wood means less pressure on forest or plantation. It also means more waste being given back to plantation,” said agriculturalists. 

Furthermore, Mahesh has connected his toilet to biogas and also uses cow dung in bio gas and this biogas by waste is later used in his plantation.

“People are shying away from using traditional chulas even after having a lot of fire wood to use. The people mainly do not use the chula just to avoid darkening of walls due to by the smoke. However, the setting of this smokeless chula helps to get rid of the smoke” said Mahesh. 

“By using this, I am saving a lot on LPG cylinder costs. Now, I only need 1 or maximum 2 cylinders per year by incurring only an initial cost of Rs 15,000 for the chula construction” added Mahesh.

Incidentally, there is already a scheme and target for smokeless chula by Goa Energy Development Agency, Saligao. There are a few master craftsmen trained in Goa to build this stove. A group of these ladies reside in Quepem, behind the Municipal Building. However, Mahesh brought the craftsman from Maharashtra.  

Agriculturalists pointed out that though the scheme has been there for few years, it has not penetrated a large area due to the shortage of master craftsman, weight of the finished chula, cost and timely supply of a smoke pipe.

Sachin Tendulkar, Senior Program Manager with Mineral Foundation of Goa who has worked extensively with farmer groups and in agriculture has praised what Mahesh has done both with the smokeless chula and the biogas. 

Speaking on the smokeless stove, he pointed out that it eliminates smoke the in kitchen by providing an outlet which escapes above the roof and has a high efficiency of fuel wood utilization as the design is done more scientifically.

“The concrete stove is promoted by GEDA and an addition to this stove is its panelling with stainless steel which makes it easy to wipe clean and gives a modern look. Being a concrete stove, embedded in stainless steel, the heat retention is better and involves less maintenance. The heat efficiency can be improved by mixing glass in the concrete as done in a traditional oven. You end up using less fuel wood and do more cooking,” said Sachin.

He added that they tried promoting this in Watershed Areas of Malkarne and Cavre few years back and that GEDA is promoting it in Cola under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

It is to be noted that GEDA is also promoting a solar cooker which has a limited uptake. The Energy Resource Institute, Santacruz also was involved in promoting another kind of stove which works on wooden chips or pellets. 

“I also have a bio gas plant which feeds some of the needs of domestic fuel for my household. Hence, having a cylinder is just a backup for me, unlike other households which use many cylinders and electric induction cookers for daily use,” said Mahesh. 

Explaining how it works, Tendulkar pointed out that the biogas by waste is collected in Ferrocement Tank of 18 Cu M capacity and that after the tank is full, the same is applied to a plantation through a hose pipe individually to each arecanut tree. “The ferrocement tank is made by using a chicken mesh frame and applying a layer of cement on either side. It works out cheaper but requires a good skilled mason. They have also erected a ferrocement bandhara (water impounding structure) on the nullah in their plantation some 10 years back,” said Sachin.

Sachin observed that biogas is another good option to reduce pressure on forests and at the same time reduce the release of methane in environment.