Evaluation of the Cooking Cultures and Practices in Rural Uganda

Many communities across the globe still practice poor cooking cultures as part of their well-being to prepare food and other heating activities. Such bad cooking practices are not environmentally friendly, are wasteful and have adverse health effects. This work presents the results of the survey that was conducted to establish the existing cooking practices commonly used in Uganda, identify the commonly used fuel during cooking, identify perceptions on improved cooking stoves (ICS), perceived preferences during cooking as well as identify whether users are aware of the health challenges due to poor cooking and describe community opinions of ICS for rural communities in Uganda. The interviews were conducted on household levels across all the regions covering Uganda’s major rural regions. It was observed that the largest population of rural Ugandans still use the 3 stone stove fire for cooking with a percentage of 53.5%, Charcoal stove, 27.3%, Improved cooking stove, 16.9%, Electric cookers,1.2%, LPG 0.7% and biogas 0.5% for the preparation of their various types of cooked foods while forest firewood is the commonly used biomass fuel for cooking with a percentage of 66.8% compared to Charcoal, Briquettes, Saw dust and others with a percentage of 27.1%, 0.7%, 0.7%, 1.1% respectively. This reveals the great majority of users whose life is at risk as 3 stone stoves are characterized by low efficiency and high smoke production which increases the health risks of the users as well as increase the risk of deforestation rates. Household cooks showed great willingness to pay for a novel stove type in all the 4 regions but from the survey data, it was indicated that the preferences varied from one region to another with a great majority preferring minimal smoke production with increased heat retention capacity. It was revealed that 91.4% of the interviewed households were aware of the health challenges due to poor cooking methods which they resolved by using open space during cooking. There was variation in the quantity of food cooked in a day, time spent on cooking and how often the cooking is done from one region to another due to the difference in economic activities as well as the different climate factors. While using cooking stoves, users preferred large cooking pot space with minimal smoke production and rapid heating. Such information can act as a basis for the design of an improved cooking stove for the rural Ugandan community as engineered products must be designed to suit the needs of the end-user.