New initiative for development and deployment of improved cookstoves: recommended action plan
A large percentage of world’s population continues to depend on biomass for their cooking needs. The cooking devices used by majority of them have very poor thermal efficiency and serious health impacts due to unclean combustion. While past few decades have seen a lot of interest the world over in development of better cookstoves for burning biomass, the magnitude of the problem is still a major cause of concern. In India, a lot of resources went into the National Programme on Improved Cookstoves between 1985 and 2004 with mixed experiences. Learning from this programme, a need has been felt to start a new initiative on biomass cookstoves with a different approach considering the changes that have taken place in the society, technology and the global concerns.