Energy-efficient cooking stoves

For the farmers in the unspoiled Kagera region, on the western shore of Lake Victoria, coffee cultivation is the only source of income besides self-sufficiency farming. KCU (Kagera Cooperative Union Ltd) was established in 1950 with the aim of breaking the trade monopoly of the middlemen. Through contacts with European fair trade organisations, KCU acquired an export license and in 1993 obtained the Fairtrade certification.
Today, KCU is a second-level organization grouping 131 primary cooperatives, representing over 60,000 smallholding farmers living in villages of the Bukoba, Muleba and Missenyi districts.

The EFTA Climate Justice Fund will support KCU to produce and distribute energy-efficient clay cooking stoves, which could minimize wood consumption and reduce the exposure of women to strong smoke emissions.
Currently about 3.0 billion people in developing countries rely on biomass fuel (including wood, charcoal, tree leaves, crop residue, cow dung etc.) for household purposes (IARC – WHO, 2020). On top of the impacts on health due to the exposure to smoke, the inefficient use of biomass has undoubtedly been a major cause of deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.
The usage of better stoves will lead to a lower tree-cutting rate; furthermore, women of the communities will establish and maintain tree nurseries, that will ensure the availability of seedlings for planting as a mitigation to tree-cutting.