Impact of biogas digesters on wood utilisation and self-reported back pain for women living on rural Kenyan smallholder dairy farms

Abstract

Women living on rural Kenyan dairy farms spend significant amounts of time collecting wood for cooking. Biogas digesters, which generate biogas for cooking from the anaerobic decomposition of livestock manure, are an alternative fuel source. The objective of this study was to quantify the quality of life and health benefits of installing biogas digesters on rural Kenyan dairy farms with respect to wood utilisation. Women from 62 farms (31 biogas farms and 31 referent farms) participated in interviews to determine reliance on wood and the impact of biogas digesters on this reliance. Self-reported back pain, time spent collecting wood and money spent on wood were significantly lower (p<0.01) for the biogas group, compared to referent farms. Multivariable linear regression showed that wood consumption increased by 2 lbs/day for each additional family member living on a farm. For an average family of three people, the addition of one cow was associated with increased wood consumption by 1.0 lb/day on biogas farms but by 4.4 lbs/day on referent farms (significant interaction variable – likely due to additional hot water for cleaning milk collection equipment). Biogas digesters represent a potentially important technology that can reduce reliance on wood fuel and improve health for Kenyan dairy farmers.

Keywords:

• wood fuel
• biogas digester
• Kenya
• dairy farm
• global health

Acknowledgements

We thank R. Wanjiru, A. Wambura, G. Kariuki, T. Mellish, K. Mellish, and Farmers Helping Farmers for their guidance and assistance. We appreciate the assistance and cooperation of the participants, the respiratory clinic hosts, the Wakulima Dairy Ltd. staff and all those involved in the fieldwork. This project was primarily funded with Pilot Study funding from the Atlantic RURAL Centre, enabled through Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grant number CDA-66534. Additional support was provided by the University of Prince Edward Island, Veterinarians without Borders-Canada, the Killam Trust M.Sc. Fellowship programme, NSERC, Dalhousie University, and the University of Prince Edward Island.

This project was approved by, and carried out in accordance with the guidelines from, the Dalhousie University Health Sciences Research Ethics Board. This study was conducted according to the ethical guidelines established by the Canadian Tri-Council Guidelines for Involvement of Human Subjects in Research published by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Institute for Health Research.