Exploring Cooking Fuel Diversity and Its Determinants: Evidence from Golaghat District of Assam

Abstract

In today’s world, it is difficult to picture human life without the use of energy. In the 21st century, human society uses energy sources for daily activities. Household energy demand changes from time to time and across generations. In Assam, over the last few decades, the pattern of household energy consumption has changed in both urban and rural areas. Urban households started to increase the use of modern cleaner energy while rural households still mainly depend on traditional energy sources. The household sector contributes a major share to the energy consumption pattern of an economy. This study is an attempt to examine the diversity of cooking fuel choices and the key determinants influencing these choices in Assam. The objectives of the present paper are to examine the diversity of cooking fuel choices among rural households of Golaghat district of Assam and to analyse the determinants of choice of cooking fuels among rural households of the surveyed district of Assam. For collection of primary data from rural households, multistage sampling technique was used. By applying Cochran’s formula, 160 households were selected as sampled households for the present study. It was found that years of schooling of the household heads, households’ monthly income, affordability of fuel price, and asset index have a positive and significant impact on superior cooking fuel choice; the impact of household size and type of house on superior fuel choice is positive but not statistically significant; the impact of distance to the town on use of superior cooking fuel, i.e., liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), was found to be negative, but not statistically significant. It is suggested that factors affecting choice of cooking fuel must be a major concern for energy policymakers. To address the affordability issue of modern energy sources, financial support or targeted subsidies should be provided to poor rural households so they can consistently use cleaner cooking fuels.

Keywords: Household Energy Demand, Inferior Bundle of Cooking Fuels, Superior Bundle of Cooking Fuels, Determinants

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