Coping strategy for curbing wood fuel scarcity in Nyamache sub-county, Kisii County, Kenya

Introduction

Wood fuel shortage is an energy problem that has existed worldwide since the 1970s when there was an oil energy crisis (Mugo, 2001; Githiomi & Oduor, 2012) [32,17] . Wood fuel is regarded as energy produced from wood biomass. Mugo (2001) [32] argues that most of the households rely more on wood fuels for their vast domestic energy needs and inability to obtain alternative energy sources. Globally, households are establishing responsive strategies for wood fuel availability and accessibility sustainably (Kaale, 2005) [24] . Despite the adopted strategies for availability and accessibility of sustainable wood fuels, wood fuel shortage has been persistent in the developing countries and in particular Kenya (Tabuti, Dhillion & Lye, 2003; Yikii, Agea & Kaboggoza, 2006) [39,43] . Existing studies show that wood fuel scarcity has been a persistent recurrent problem which has attracted many responses globally (FAO, 2009 & FAO, 2010). FAO (2009) [14] and FAO (2010) [14] further asserted that it may take several years for developing countries to realize other alternative sources of energy. Yikii et al., (2006) [43] projected that by the year 2000; about 9 million African households could have had adequate wood fuel energy supply from within their farms. However, this projection was not realized by a number of households. Therefore, there is the urgent need to assess the role of established strategies by the households within their farmlands for curbing wood fuel shortages both nationally and locally. In response to wood fuel shortages, measures at different levels are sought trying to solve this enormous perennial problem. Global households have been noted to advance a number of strategic mechanisms such as switching to clean fuels, conservation methods, raising energy efficiency by adoption of modern stoves, increasing wood fuel production and establishing woodlots (Arnold, Persson & Shepherd, 2003) [3] .

However, by late 1980s, researchers have realized that the "gap model" describing the difference between wood fuel production and demand was overestimated and simplified. Arnold et al., (2003) [3] further proceeded to investigate households' strategic responses sought to wood fuel shortages sustainably at international, regional, national and local levels. Consequently, most profound strategic interventions were advanced purposely for increasing the supply of wood fuels. For instance, a huge government initiative was established in South Korea within which village households were encouraged to plant collective woodlots on their farms to access wood fuel needs easily (Dewees, 1989) [9] . To some extent, the Social Forestry Programme in India recommended households to be encouraged to grow trees on their farms for easy accessibility of wood fuels (Dewees, 1989) [9] . Despite all these interventional responses of advancing strategies to increase wood fuels among the households, the scarcity still persisted. Existing studies show that households worldwide establish woodlots in their farms as a strategic response to wood fuel scarcity (Calvo, 1994; Heltberg, 2003; Jagger, Pender & Gebremedhin, 2005; Wanambwa, 2005; Mutua, 2006; Kituyi, 2008) [7,19,23,42,33,27] . However, wood fuel scarcity has been relatively addressed using establishment of woodlots as a strategy for wood fuel availability. Adoption of woodlots has been a success case in provision of wood fuels in countries such as Asia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria (ETC, 1987; Githiomi, Mugendi & Kung'u, 2011; Waris & Autahal, 2014) [16,12] . Likewise studies carried out in Egypt, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and South Africa showed that those households whose serious challenges of wood fuels had adopted establishment of woodlots in their farmlands (Calvo, 1994; Arnold et al., 2003; Ouedraogo, 2006; Nellie & Githiomi, 2003) [7,3,33] . However, the enormous household wood fuel demands by aforementioned countries have not been met hence failure cases. The Kenyan households have recognized the role of establishment of woodlots and the contribution to their livelihoods (Kituyi, 2008) [27] . This has necessitated a comprehensive adoption of establishment of woodlots as a strategy to address persistent wood fuel shortages. However, a sustainable wood fuel has not been achieved. Most researches in Kenya have focused on establishment of woodlots as the impact on the environment (Mutua, 2006; Nzamba, 2007 [16,33,37,26] . However, less emphasis has been put on establishment of woodlots as a strategy for curbing wood fuel scarcity. The study therefore, assessed the coping strategy for curbing wood fuel shortages in Nyamache Sub-county, Kisii County.

Objectives of the study

The purpose of this study is to make an assessment of the establishment of woodlots for wood fuel availability in Nyamache Sub-county, Kisii County, Kenya. The specific objective was to analyze the coping strategies adopted by the households for curbing wood fuel shortages in Nyamache Sub-county.

Description of the study area

The study area was in Nyamache Sub-county (Figure 1) that is located in Bobasi constituency in Kisii County (IEBC, 2012) [21] . It lies in western Kenya between latitude 0 0 47ʹ 00ʹʹ South of Equator and Longitude 34 0 50ʹ 00ʹʹ East of Greenwich Meridian and is placed at an altitude of 1700 m above sea level (KNBS, 2013 & IEBC, 2013) [22] . It is relatively located as follows; Kisii Central Sub-county to its North, Gucha South Sub-county to the South, Trans Mara Sub-county to the North East, Kenyenya Sub-county to the West and Sameta Sub-county to the North West. It is approximately 20 km from Kisii town which is the headquarter of the county government of Kisii. According to the 2009 census, Nyamache Sub-county in Kisii County had five (5) administrative locations namely; Bassi Central, Bassi Masige East, Bassi Masige West, Bassi Bogetaorio and Nyacheki. The sub-county where the study was carried out covers an area of 162.5 km 2 and it supports a population of 126, 262 people with a population density of 807.34 persons/km 2 and 26, 458 households (KNBS, 2009) [28] . The population density was expected to grow at 1.5 percent annually. However, the high population has put a lot of pressure on resources wood fuels inclusive, which would continue to increase over the coming years (NEMA, 2007; NEMA, 2009) [35][36] . Description of Nyamache Sub-county is highlighted in the Table 1. Source: KNBS, (2009) [28] .

Methodology

This study adopted descriptive research design in which qualitative and quantitative data collection procedures, methods and analysis were described to understand the research problem (Best & Khan, 2003) [4] . It was to assess the local community based strategy for curbing wood fuel shortages in Nyamache Sub-county, Kisii County, Kenya. The researcher used; questionnaires, key informant interviews, observation and Focus Groups Discussion as the main tools for collecting data. They were mainly concerned with views and perceptions of the household respondents.

The study was both explorative and interpretive in nature by surveying physical barriers faced by the households in accessing wood fuel and generating information from both quantitative and qualitative data using inferential statistics respectively (Kothari, 2004) [30] . The targete population was 26, 458 households who were drawn from the five locations of Nyamache Sub-county with a total population of 126, 282 people (KNBS, 2009) [28] . According to KNBS (2009) [28] , the five locations purposively selected in the sub-county included; Bassi Central, Bassi Masige East, Bassi Masige West, Bassi Bogetaorio and Nyacheki. The target population constituted all the household units, in particular those who have had great interaction with woodlots establishment for wood fuel availability (ETC, 1987 and Bradley, 1987) [12] . Also government agents such as forest department officers and NEMA officials in the sub-county were contacted and their information sought which generated relevant data for this study. The study sample size of 379 households out of the target population of 26, 458 consisting of men, women and children was used. The sample size was arrived at by carefully taking into account the objectives being studied using the Krejcie and Morgan's formula (Krejcie & Morgan, 1970) [31] . This sample size was justified by the Morgan and Krejcie's table and graph for determining sample size from a given population and sample size vis-a-vis total population respectively (Krejcie et al., 1970) [31] , calculated as follows;

Where S = required sample size. X 2 = Table value of chi-square for 1 degree of freedom at the confidence level, which is . N = population size. P = proportion assumed to be . d = degree of accuracy expressed as a proportion which is .

This number, 379 households, was again purposively stratified proportionately into different location strata as indicated in Table 3.2 (Amin, 2005) [2] . A sample of 72 households in Bassi Central, 57 households in Bassi Masige East, 53 households in Bassi Masige West, 76 households in Bassi Bogetaorio and 121 households from Nyacheki locations respectively were purposively selected for this study. [28]

Results and Discussion

Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Household Respondents

The characteristics of the household respondents in relation to establishment of woodlots for wood fuel availability in Nyamache Sub-county, Kisii County, Kenya, were tabulated and recorded as per the data (Table 3). These characteristics included the following; sex, age, marital status, occupation, educational background, dependents and size of land as were tabulated from the questionnaires. Results indicated that more than half of the household respondents (62.7%) were females while 37.3%. This was an apparent reflection of the major role played by women in wood fuel collection in the African set up (ETC, 1987) [12] . Majority of the respondents (52.8%) were aged between 30 and 49 years whose mean age of 38.4 of the households authenticated the results of this research given the Kenyan age of above 18 years in the constitution of Kenya (GOK, 2010) [18] . 4 portrayed establishment of woodlots as the main strategy for wood fuel availability at the study area by more than three quarters of the household respondents (90.5%). The results were in agreement with FAO, (2010) [14] 's perception; for households viewed establishment of woodlots as an affordable response to wood fuels scarcity. However, the strategy is a response which needs to be adopted and practiced abundantly (Cooke, 2008; Githiomi, 2010) [8,15] . The percentage of farms presenting established woodlots was high in the Bassi Central location at (95.4%), followed by Bassi Masige West at (93.8%) and least at Nyacheki (82.9%). Bassi Masige East responded at (92.3%), while Bassi Bogetaorio location was at (85.5%) respectively (Table 4). For the entire study area, the woodlot owners accounted for about 90 percent whereas non-woodlot owners represented a percentage which was less than 10 meaning the strategy was an amicable solution to wood fuel scarcity. Many woodlots farms were found on the infertile edges of farms and on steep slopes (Majid, 2006 & Beyene, 2013) [5] (Plate 1).

Coping Strategies Adopted by the Households in Response to Wood fuel Shortages

Plate 1: Established woodlot at Kionyo in Bassi Masige East location A third (32.9%) of the household respondents claimed that wood fuel energy saving technologies was adopted at the scarce of wood fuels (Table 4). The respondents indicated that they own at most one technology in place of perennial wood fuel scarcity experienced. Adoption of wood fuel energy saving technologies was aimed at decreasing high demand for wood fuels (KENGO, 1991) [25] . In addition, the technologies improved the households' livelihoods and enhance sustainable wood production (Eckholm, 1982; KENGO, 1991) [10,25] . Despite the use of energy saving technologies, a section of the respondents in the study area were unable to adopt such technologies may be because of lack of information about them and the love they have towards the wood fuels. 4 shows that more than half (66.5%) of the household respondents claimed to be using wood fuel energy conservation methods (Figure 2, 3 and 4 respectively). The study found that the number of collecting times had increased from an average of 2 times a week to 3 times a week. This could also involve movement of women and girls in search of wood fuels. Given the sustained increase in distance to source wood fuel the study has concluded that this is a strong indicator of wood fuel scarcity in Nyamache Sub-county, Kisii County. When faced with wood fuel shortages, rural households sometimes resort to using cheaper and less efficient sources of energy. This was a strong indicator that mature trees could not meet the wood fuel demand of the area. The study also found that households with some wood fuel available still used maize cobs and stalks after the harvest season and postponed use of wood. Maize cobs were commonly used to boil foods and warm water (Plate 3). However, they were unpopular with households because of their tendency to smoke. When households lacked the time to source for split wood they would resort to using dry maize stalks. Maize stalks were used as an alternative to split wood (Plate 2). Maize stalks were also unpopular because a household required a big bundle to make a meal and they burned out fast forcing one to keep feeding the fire with more. Though, most respondents indicated that maize stalks burned out quickly and therefore one has to use much of them whenever they are used as alternatives at the time of serious wood fuel shortages (Gilbert Ndutu Munywoki et al, 2023) [41] . 4). The energy sources were used for cooking, heating and lighting in the developing world (Heltberg, Channing & Sekhar, 2000) [20] . However, household respondents do not afford the alternative energy sources sustainably because of high prices attached to them (Githiomi, 2010) [15] . For instance, in Lurambi District, Kenya, alternative energy sources provide an effective source of fuel in times of wood fuel scarcity (Githiomi et al., 2012) [17] . Among the households, 10 percent cited the use of alternative sources of energy for wood fuel as per Githiomi, (2010) [15] . This is comparable to Akther (2010) [1] in a study on household adaptation to wood fuel shortage among 60 households in Bangladesh found that 23 percent of the households adapted to wood fuel scarcity by use of alternative sources of energy. Table 5 showed that establishment of woodlots for wood fuel availability was the most significant strategy in Nyamache Sub-county, Kisii County at ( at df = 3 at 0.05) level of significance compared to other strategies. Individually adopted strategies though, statistically insignificant included; wood fuel energy saving technologies ( at df = 3 at 0.05) level of significance, use of wood fuel conservation methods ( at df=3) and use of alternative energy sources ( at df = 3 at 0.05) level of significance (Table 5).

Conclusion

Based on the research findings the study concluded that establishment of woodlots helped mitigate wood fuel shortages statistically significant at ( 0.68<15.09 at df= 5) at 0.05 levels of significance. This is because wood fuel was the most preferred source of fuel by majority (79.5%) of the household respondents in the study area. It is crystal clear that established woodlots play a vital role in provision of wood fuels to the households' demand (Githiomi, 2010) [15] . However, establishment of woodlots has not been widely adopted by the rural households at the local levels. Woodlots establishment as an affordable strategy for curbing wood fuel shortages has been widely adopted by majority (90.5%) of the household respondents. However, the rate at which households adopt the establishment of woodlots has been very slow both in theory and practice.

Recommendation

The researcher therefore, recommended that establishment of woodlots be adopted in the area, local communities engage in establishing woodlots and be positive in wood fuel scarcity alleviation strategies country wide and local politicians to sensitize households on woodlots established on their farms. However, there is need to formulate clear policies and by-laws to guide and escalate well adoption mechanisms of woodlots establishments. Additionally, the local politicians whose influence is immense on the electorates should offer moral and financial support to achieve this objective.

Acknowledgement

I thank the almighty God for according me good health, strength, wisdom and understanding which has enabled me to come this far. In addition, I give Him many thanks and continue glorifying His name for enabling me to complete this study successfully. I am highly indebted to my supervisors: Dr. Otieno A. Charles and Dr. Tonui K. Warkach for their guidance, constructive criticisms and personal interests in the progress of this study. I specifically thank them for their critical reading versions of this thesis and earlier drafts of my proposal. I am appreciative for their intellectual kindness and persistent interactions and involvement with my work that helped me grow academically. Also, let me acknowledge the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI-Kenya) for their permission to carry out the research in Nyamache Sub-county, Kisii County, Kenya. Finally, I thank all my household respondents who generously provided me with resourceful data and showed a lot of cooperation throughout the study period. Equally important is my appreciation to my lovely wife Jackline and daughters Ashley and Abigael, family members, friends, and all MA colleagues who supported this research directly or indirectly in their motivation and interest.

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