Attitude, knowledge and perception of choice of cooking fuels: Evidence from two large communities in <scp>South‐east</scp> Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract There has been reported low adoption of cleaner cooking fuel technologies and systems in Nigeria. The literature documents that socio‐economic, cultural/behavioral, and environmental factors influence the decision to adopt alternative cooking fuels. However, there is a dearth of evidence on the most important factors influencing transition to clean cooking fuels in South‐east Nigeria. This study therefore analyzed the knowledge, attitude, behavior and practice of rural households' with regards to transition to cleaner cooking fuels particularly liquified petroleum gas (LPG). The study also analyzed the socio‐economic determinants of the transition to LPG in southeast Nigeria. Two communities in southeast Nigeria that benefitted from the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) project funded by UKAID (DFID) participated in the study. We administered questionnaire to 407 household heads randomly selected from the two communities. This study used descriptive statistics, Likert scale analysis and binary probit model to analyze the data collected. The results show that while LPG was the most (51.84%) preferred choice of cooking fuel, only 0.74% of the households in practice actually used LPG for cooking. The main reason for the very low use of LPG was high cost of LPG and its accessories. The study also revealed that gender, education, household size, membership of cooperative societies, were the significant predictors of clean cooking transition. Therefore, policies and programs should be designed to increase women's access to quality education and encourage them to organize themselves in cooperatives to enhance their access to LPG.