Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Research Article

Household Energy Consumption Patterns in Tanzania

Department of Forest Economics, Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania

*Corresponding Author:

Lusambo LP
Department of Forest Economics
Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Morogoro, Tanzania
Tel: +255 23 260 3511
E-mail: lusambo_2000@yahoo.com

Received date: October 13, 2015; Accepted date: March 31, 2016; Published date: April 07, 2016

Citation: Lusambo LP (2016) Household Energy Consumption Patterns in Tanzania. J Ecosys Ecograph S5:007. doi:10.4172/2157-7625.S5-007

Copyright: © 2016 Lusambo LP. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Tanzanian households depend primarily on wood fuel as a source of energy. However, the consumption patterns and intensities remain poorly understood. The aim of the present study was therefore to provide a better understanding of households’ fuel consumption. Stratified random sampling design was used in order to capture fuel consumption patterns between rural, peri-urban and urban populations and across household wealth categories. Households in each randomly selected site were stratified into low, medium and high wealth categories. Data was collected using pre-tested and pilot-tested questionnaires, direct measurements, direct observations, interviews and focus group discussions. A total of 568 households were sampled: rural (258); peri-urban (177) and urban (133). This sample was drawn from across all wealth categories: low-198 households (34.9%); medium-255 households (44.9%) and high-115 households (20.2%). Several hypotheses were found to be true: (1) Socio-economic and demographic factors have effects on household fuel choice; (2) There is significant household preference to miombo woodlands as source of wood fuel. Factors which were found to be important in influencing choice of fuel are: location of household, residence ownership, dwelling category, household income, and education level of household head; (3) Household survey revealed a sizeable preference towards miombo woodlands as a source of wood fuel. Household dependency on wood fuel is overwhelming and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Promotion of improved wood fuel stoves and improved charcoal making kilns, electrification, and promotion of alternative sources of fuel are shown to alleviate the problem.

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