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Consumption and Marketing of Wood Fuel in the Rural Area of Bangladesh - a Case Study in Sandvip Upazilla of Chittagong

MD. Shah Newaz
Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh.

MD. Alamgir Kabir
Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

An exploratory survey to assess the consumption pattern and marketing mechanism of wood fuel in Sandvip, a forest poor upazilla of Bangladesh was carried out in the year 2000. The woodfuel in Sand vip was used in domestic cooking, tea stalls, bakeries, brickfields, pottery and lime burning. Assessment of wood fuel consumption in domestic cooking was done by means of stratified random sampling and that in the tea stalls, bakeries, brickfields, pottery and lime burning by means of complete enumeration. Based on the annual income households were categorized into rich, medium and poor and then 30 families, 10 from each category were selected randomly for the study. Rich and medium households are the main users of wood fuels; they fulfill more than 80% and 55% respectively of their wood fuel requirements from own sources and the rest from the market. The poor meet most of their energy requirements from branches and twigs collected from their neighbors' homegarden and also from agricultural residues and cow dung. Homestead forests, widely distributed throughout Sandvip, are the major sources of these wood fuels which provides about 92% of the total consumption. Consumption of wood fuel in domestic cooking, tea stalls, bakeries, brick burning, pottery and lime burning industries are 81, 18,0.29,0.77,0.07 and 0.07 percent respectively of the total consumption. In the prevailing marketing system the growers are always deprived of getting the right values of their products, which repressed their interests of growing commercial fuel wood plantations. In this situation marketing of wood fuel needs special attention as the producers/gatherers are underprivileged and the products have high demand with low supply. To develop a proper market structure and to ensure efficient consumption of wood fuel some recommendations are made.

Keywords: Homestead forest, Woodfuel, Domestic, Industrial

Location: Sandvip upazilla, an offshore island of Bangladesh.

Start Date: 00-00-2000

End Date: 00-00-2000

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Market analysis

Objectives:

To study the present consumption pattern and marketing of wood fuel of a forest-poor upazilla of Bangladesh.

Methodology:

A systematic survey on wood fuel consumption pattern and marketing mechanism was carried out in Sandvip upazilla, an offshore island of Bangladesh, in the year 2000. For the purpose the consumers of wood fuel were first identified and then detailed survey on each of the consumers were conducted. For domestic consumption out of 15 unions of the upazilla 5 unions were selected randomly for the sampling. A preliminary socio-economic survey, administering a pre-tested questionnaire, was then conducted in order to categorize household consumers of the selected unions into the following three socio-economic groups: rich (with an annual income more than TK. 60,000.00), medium (with an annual income TK. 36,000.00 to 60,000.(0) and poor (with an annual income less than TK. 36,000.00). Thirty households, ten from each category, were then selected randomly for the detailed study. Income was used as the basis of stratification as it is a critical variable in the economic study related to wood fuel consumption. The total number of households in Sandvip and some other related information were obtained from the regional office of the Statistical Bureau of Bangladesh. Data on sources and production of wood fuel, major species used, consumed amount, etc. were collected through interview using the questionnaire. Consumption of wood fuel in tea stalls, bakeries, brickfields, pottery and lime burning industries were assessed through cent percent enumeration. For this purpose all the tea stalls, bakeries, brickfields, pottery and lime burning industries in the upazilla were surveyed critically. Data on marketing channel, trans- portation system, pricing mechanism and problems of marketing wood fuels were gathered from a separate market survey. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview 25% of the wood fuel sellers.

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Lack of efficient consumption of wood fuel is rapidly depleting the valuable forest re- sources and at the same time lack of proper marketing facilities hindering the expansion of the sources. To protect the present trend of depletion in forest resources efficient consumption of the resource must be ensured. Existing high pressure on the forest resources might be reduced through mass plantations using species conferring higher yield and higher fuel values such as Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia mangium, Cassia siamea, Melia sempervirens, Leucaena leucocephala, Gmelina arborea, Anthocephallus chiunensis, Casuarina littorea, Dalbergia sissoo, Albizia saman, etc. Through the development of proper marketing system the growers' interests should be made well protected so that they are encouraged for mass production. The sustainable supply of wood fuel, the vital source of energy both in domestic and industrial sector, can only be ensured by means of increasing the efficiency in consumption and equitable distribution through a proper marketing system.

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