Rural energy data sources and estimations in India

Preeti Malhotra, Fellow, TERI; I H Rehman, Fellow, TERI; Preety Bhandari, Senior Fellow,
TERI; Ronnie Khanna, Research Associate, TERI ; Ritu Upreti, Research Associate, TERI

Introduction
One of the important features of rural energy is the dependence on locally
available biomass resources. Since they are collected at zero cash cost, data
collection on consumption is primarily recall-based. Similarly, local-level supply
and demand is difficult to capture. Hence, there is an inherent problem of data
availability and authenticity. Micro-level experiences are at times contrary to the
macro assessments provided. The claims, therefore, made of successful energy
transitions (both in terms of fuel and technology) or popularly known as ‘fuel
switch’, happening in the rural areas, is perhaps an over statement. The following
sections give a brief status of the present fuel/technology mix in the rural areas, a
critique of the data sets available on consumption/supply that highlight trends
and some of the key issues. The analysis has been presented with respect to the
macro assessments and the micro-level evidence (surveys, case studies, etc.)
bringing out the weaknesses in types of data available and assessments made vis-
à-vis rural energy transitions.

Fuel/device mix in rural households

The rural population in India relies heavily on traditional biomass-based fuels
(fuelwood, crop residues, and animal dung) for meeting its energy needs.
Approximately 96% of rural households are estimated to be using biofuels (NSSO
1997). These fuels dominate the domestic sector and are primarily used for
cooking. Fuelwood is the primary energy source for cooking used by rural
households (78%) (TERI 1999a). In actual volumes as well, fuelwood ranks first,
at 252.1 million tonnes, followed by dung-cakes, at 106.9 million tonnes and
agricultural residue, at 99.2 million tonnes of annual consumption (TERI 1992).
Similarly, the per capita consumption figures are also high for fuelwood at 250
kg, 50 kg for animal dung and 134 kg for crop residues (NSSO 1997) This is
further corroborated by the energy consumption estimation given by NCAER
(Natarajan 1997).

1
Most of the fuelwood used in rural households is collected from not one, but
several sources, such as common lands, reserved/protected areas (government
controlled forest lands), panchayat land, privately owned land, and revenue
wastelands. Mostly women and children transport wood and other biomass fuels
as head loads. The wood fuel and other biomass are burnt in inefficient
traditional mud stoves (~20% efficiency) in poorly ventilated kitchens. In the
northern states, where cooking of animal feed is common, hara is the cooking
device used. It is also used for simmering milk. Portable mud and metal cook
stoves are also used.

Petroleum products like LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) and kerosene form less
than two per cent of the total energy consumption in the rural areas. Hence the
large imports of petroleum products only marginally benefit the rural populace
that constitutes nearly 70% of the population in the country. In rural India,
kerosene is mainly used for lighting. According to the 50th round of NSS (NSSO
1996), around 62% of the rural households use kerosene primarily for lighting.
Only two per cent of the rural households in India used kerosene as the primary
cooking fuel. The total kerosene consumption in India during 2000/01 was
estimated at around 11.5 million tonnes, out of which about 60% was for the rural
areas. The PCA (per capita allocation) for states ranges between 10 and 24 kg a
year. While allocating kerosene for the year 1999/2000, the maximum PCA has
been frozen at 24 kg per annum (MoPNG 2000).

In case of LPG, since 1985, the consumption has grown from over 100 million
tonnes in 1985 to over 6000 million tonnes in 1999. The number of LPG
customers served by the four oil companies as on 1 January 2000 was 43.6
million (MoPNG 2000). However, the rural penetration during this period is just
over one per cent of the total households (MoPNG 2000).

In terms of extension of grid electricity to the rural areas, the rural electrification
programme, which is the largest rural energy programme today, claims to have
electrified more than 85% of the 580 000 villages in the country (CEA 1996).
However, at present, there are 80 000 villages in India that need to be electrified.
Out of these, 18 000 are remote and geographically inaccessible where grid
extension is not economically viable (1991 census). As per the 2001 census, the
number of such villages is likely to be considerably higher. According to an

2
estimate, about 65% of the households in electrified villages do not receive
benefits of electricity even now. This is both on account of inability of households
to afford electricity connections as well as low demand on account of poor
reliability and quality of the existing supply. The net result is that at least 70-80
million rural households still depend on kerosene lamps for meeting a basic need
such as lighting (according to the draft Tenth Five-year Plan 2002–2007 of the
Planning Commission, Government of India). Both electrified and un-electrified
households depend on kerosene-based lighting devices. The kerosene devices
used in rural areas have low luminous efficiency and a high specific fuel
consumption. In a study of the usage of kerosene-based lighting devices in the
rural areas of Uttar Pradesh (TERI 1999b); of the electrified households
surveyed, 85% households were using home-made wick lamps for more than four
hours a day (average) and the remaining were found to be using hurricane
lanterns. Another interesting pattern of usage was that a majority of electrified
households used bulbs for lighting in their living rooms and outer verandahs, but
continued to use kerosene based lighting devices in the kitchen and for other
miscellaneous activities.

Fuel mix in the agriculture sector

The agricultural development strategy for the Ninth Five-year Plan was based on
the policy of food security announced by the Government of India to double the
food production and make India hunger free in 10 years. Of all the inputs that are
required to boost agricultural production, assured irrigation facilities are most
important. In order to meet the growing water requirements of the country, the
Government of India initiated rapid farm mechanization programmes along with
policy measures such as under pricing of power and irrigation in the early 1950s.
As a result of this, the number of pump sets increased manyfold (8 million pump
sets in 2001 and 14 million pump sets in 2001/02) (Table 1). In a majority of the
states, farmers pay for electricity on the basis of a flat rate per unit of installed
horsepower. This is irrespective of the amount of water that is pumped out.
Consequently, agriculture is the largest consumer of water in India, accounting
for 85% of the total water used in the country (MoEF, 2001).

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Table1 Progress of mechanization and energy consumption in agriculture sector
Year Electric Diesel Electricity Diesel
pumps pumps
(GWh) (MMT)
1953/54 0.030 — 219.40 0.210
1960/61 0.199 0.283 832.93 0.305
1970/71 1.629 0.558 4470.23 0.799
1980/81 4.330 2.825 14489.06 3.181
1990/91 8.909 5.054 5032.40 5.405
1994/95 10.721 6.304 79300.94 6.245
Source: Maggo (1998)

Currently, of the total electricity consumption in the country the share of

agriculture is 30%. The consumption is somewhat higher in states like Andhra
Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh
where agricultural electricity use is between 35%–45%. However, sale of
electricity amounts to no more than 5-10% of the state electricity boards’
revenues due to high subsidies. A case in point is Haryana, where 47% of
electricity produced is consumed by the agricultural sector and contributes to less
than 8% of the revenues generated. Similarly, figures for Andhra Pradesh are
45% and 4%, respectively. At the national level, farmers consume 33% of total
power supply, while paying only 2.5% of the total revenues. Hidden in these
numbers is the large proportion of unaccounted consumption (theft and losses)
reported as agricultural use (Source: Energy efficiency in Indian Agriculture, S.
Padmanaban, http://www.usaid.gov/in accessed on 23 August 2002).

Fuel consumption in the SMES sector

The small-scale industries occupy an important place in the country’s economy.
India has more than three million small-scale industries in the organized sector
and about 15 million enterprises in the unorganized sector. These units account
for about 40% of the total industrial output in the country and in terms of
employment generation this sector is next only to agriculture contributing an
estimated 14% to the GDP. The total expenditure per enterprise on energy (fuel
and electricity) increased by about 200% between 1990 and 1995. The
expenditure on fuel and electricity increased more than proportionately in

4
comparison to the total inputs. As per the estimate, of the energy consuming
enterprises 28% use firewood as their source of energy while about 8% of the
enterprises use charcoal to meet their energy needs. A large population of small
enterprises uses fossil fuel as the main source of energy. In recent years, the
prices of energy, both thermal and electrical, have been increasing steadily. For
example, diesel oil prices have increased to Rs 17.05/litre (2001) from Rs
7.95/litre (January 1997). Similarly, other petroleum fuels have also registered a
steep increase in prices due to the soaring international prices of crude oil. The
electricity tariff for industrial customers is also generally much higher compared
to agricultural customers. Further, with the various regulatory mechanisms
coming into play, industrial customers may have to pay even higher rates. Also,
concessional tariffs provided initially to encourage small industry are coming to
an end, resulting in a sudden, heavy burden on such industries.

Energy transitions: performance

Several macro-level and micro-level assessments have been done to determine
the nature and extent of energy transitions happening in the rural areas of the
country. These assessments have further been used in planning for the energy
needs of the rural people. Despite the numerous government-led initiatives to
encourage fuel switch to the use of fossil fuels in rural areas (e.g., subsidies on
kerosene and electricity), there has been an increase in consumption of all
biomass-based fuels over the years. There has also been a definite shift to the use
of superior biomass in the form of logs. This is amply borne out by the fact that
during the period 1978/79 to 1992/93 the share of firewood in the form of logs
rose dramatically from 18.95% to 32.49% on account of programmes of social
forestry, which were initiated in the early 1980s (Aggarwal 1998). However,
during the same period the share of firewood percentage of households using a
particular fuel) in the form of twigs fell from 67.6% in 1978/79 to 62.9% in
1992/93.

There has also been a major shift in the source type for supply of fuelwood
(Figure 1) showing a decrease in dependency on forests. The supply of fuelwood
from individual agricultural fields and roadside bushes and trees has increased.

5
 Figure 1. Fuelwood collection by
Rural households

60
50
% share in supply

40
30
20
10
0
Forest Own farm Roadside Other
bushes and
trees
1978 1992

Source: www.rwedp.org (7 December 2001)

The gap between consumption and recorded production of fuelwood has,

however, been increasing, indicating the seriousness of the fuelwood problem in
India (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Consumption and recorded production

of fuelwood in India

300

260
250
235
million cubic metres

200 199.6

163.9
150

129.4
115
100

50 52.6
40
28.5
8.8 9.7 13.7
0 0
1947 1953/54 1965/66 1975/76 1987 1997

Consumption Sustainable production

6
 Source: Forest Survey of India (1988)

This gap is widely believed to be met from illicit and unsustainable exploitation of
biomass resources. At the present rate of consumption, this will clearly result in
further degradation of the biomass resource base, and containing this demand
would be a major concern in the future.

In case of commercial fuels the consumption of kerosene by rural households has

increased from 414 thousand kilolitres in 1978/79 to 10 500 thousand kilolitres
in 1999/2000 (TERI 2000). However, the end use penetration rates are not very
impressive. For instance, oonly 1.3% rural households use LPG for cooking in the
rural areas (CMIE 1996a). Similarly, only 1.34% rural households use kerosene
for cooking (CMIE 1996b). The 50th round of NSS (National Sample Survey)
states that two per cent of rural households could afford to use kerosene or gas as
the primary source of energy for cooking (GoI 1997). People are not shifting to,
say the use of LPG for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the alternative, fuelwood, is
freely and easily available. Since a majority of the rural population ‘collects’ wood
and therefore does not have to incur a cost, their first choice is always biomass.
Other problems relate to the lack of infrastructure support (e.g., absence of
facilities for refilling at doorstep) wherever LPG has managed to penetrate or due
to inappropriate policies1. Lack of awareness among rural communities is another
factor for the slow rate of adoption (fear of the cylinder bursting) as much are the
cooking practices and eating habits that are acting as road blocks to the speedy
penetration of LPG in the rural areas.

1
In most of the companies, the policy is that the cylinders will
be refilled after 21 days. However, owing to logistic and
economic reasons, rural customers usually take 3 months to get
the cylinders refilled.

7
Figure 3 Gross energy consumption: Rural, by expenditure class
Source NSSO 2001

In terms of the extent of ‘switch over’, only one per cent of the households in the
rural areas has switched over from firewood and chips as a source of cooking
since 1987/88 (GoI 1997a)6. While the dependence of rural households on dung-
cake, coke, and coal has fallen and that on kerosene and gas has risen over
successive NSS rounds, the percentage of households (77%–79%) dependent on
firewood and chips has remained constant (GOI 1997). This further reiterated by
the rural energy consumption figures for the latest round of NSSO (Figure 3).

8
 Figure 4 -Monthly per capita enrgy consumption in rural
areas

0.04
LPG (kg)
0.01

0.68
Kerosene (litre)
0.57

2.27
Electricity (kWh)
1.3

Firewood and chips (kg) 17.27

16.24

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

1978/79 1993/94
Source: NSSO, 1997. Consumption of some important commodities in India. Report No. 404.
New Delhi: National Sample Survey Organization, Department of Statistics, GoI.

The monthly per capita figures between 1978/79 and 1992/93 also show an
increase in the consumption of fuelwood, LPG and kerosene fuels. However, the
increase in the consumption of LPG and kerosene is marginal while that for
fuelwood and electricity it is significant (Figure 4).

With regard to rural electrification, the NSSO 50th and 55th round surveys
carried out in 1993/94 and 1999-2000, respectively, have indicated that the
households using electricity as main source of electricity has increased from 37%
in 1993/94 to 53 % in 2000.

Quantitative assessment of fuel mix

Macro-level assessment
For Indian rural energy planning, the main agencies involved in the process of
data collection and making estimations at the national/macro level are the
NCAER (National Council for Applied Economic Research), NSSO (National

9
Sample Survey Organization), CMIE (Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy),
and TERI (Tata Energy Research Institute).
Several efforts have been made by these agencies and others (e.g. working groups
set up by the government) to determine the fuel mix in rural areas. Prominent
among these are ESI (1965), Working Group on Energy Policy (1979), ABE
(1985), EDSG (1986), NCAER (1985), REDB (1991) etc. However, most of these
are sample surveys and the actual energy use is only an estimation using some
standard norms while doing the surveys. Internationally comparable, cross-
sectoral, or time-series data is either non-existent or incomplete. Most of the
frequently used data in estimating rural household consumption patterns comes
from the surveys of the NCAER and the NSSO. One of the initial household level
surveys on rural energy consumption was done in 1962 by NCAER that was used
in the ESI (Energy Survey of India Committee) report, which was published in
1965. Following this, the Working Group on Energy Policy was set up in 1977 by
the Government of India, which used the results of the 18th and 28th rounds of
the NSS to project the aggregate energy demand. After these initial efforts,
several more studies were done to estimate energy consumption (demand).

NCAER Most of the above mentioned studies have relied on the surveys done by
the NCAER (in 1978/79 and 1992/93). The survey of 1978/79 was first of its kind
at the macro level, which covered 13 010 sample households spread over 18 states
of which the rural sample was 7500 households in 600 villages selected from 300
districts. This survey estimated that 89.7% of the household energy is consumed
for cooking in rural areas, while lighting and all other end uses account for only
6.3% and 4.0% of the total energy consumed respectively (NCAER 1985).

The NSSO is a unified agency under the Department of Statistics, Government of

India, which undertakes all types of survey work. The subject coverage of the
socio-economic surveys includes survey on consumer expenditure, employment
and unemployment, manufacturing establishments and enterprises, and trading
establishments and enterprises in the unorganized sector. The surveys are
repeated every five years. Subjects like land holding, livestock holding, debt, and
investment are covered once in 10 years.

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With respect to rural energy, NSSO collects data on primary sources of energy for
cooking and lightning from households throughout the country. The survey gives
per thousand distribution of households by primary sources of energy for cooking
and lighting for each household (occupation) type and social groups (SC, ST and
other households). It also gives the distribution of households by MPCE (monthly
per capita expenditure) class for each source of energy for cooking and lighting.
The survey covers the entire country and uses the stratified sampling design for
data collection.
The data, however, is limited only to the household sector and does not focus on
energy requirement for agriculture and rural industry. As a result, two vital
components of rural energy are overlooked and it is not possible to form a
comprehensive picture regarding the distribution of energy consumption in the
rural areas. It would have been particularly helpful if the economic categories of
farmers had also been considered in the survey. Moreover, the consumption
levels for rural cooking and lighting are available; but the supply of fuels at the
district, state, and country level are not available. Moreover, the data does not
have some basic information, like the number of villages electrified, for an energy
planner to use.

CMIE Energy Survey. This is an energy database put together by the CMIE. This
contains extensive data on the energy sector from petroleum to coal. The
mandate and design of the CMIE survey, however, does not include a number of
issues related to rural energy planning. Some of these issues have been discussed
below.

The primary problem with this data set is that energy consumption for petroleum
products like kerosene is not segregated into rural and urban components. Only
the consumption figures have been given and there is no data on the supply of
these products at the national, regional, or state level. Moreover, the data does
not address the demand, supply, and consumption of traditional sources of
energy like fuelwood. Also, the data on renewables, capacity, type and place of
installation is not available.

11
REDB database. The REDB database has been compiled by TERI, New Delhi.
The REDB database gives the per capita consumption values of various fuels used
in the rural areas, especially in the household sector. It is based on the several
micro surveys done in different agro-climatic regions of the country. The surveys
are recall based. The database, however, is too geographically scattered, the
sampling is non-uniform and primarily focuses on per capita consumption.

TEDDY (TERI Energy Data Directory and Yearbook). This country-specific

database records domestic production, trade, conversions and losses, and
delivered energy consumption for major types of commercial energy sources.
This data is compiled by TERI, New Delhi. The national energy balances are
calculated on an annual basis. The limitations of this data set with regard to its
use for rural energy planning is that it is not primary, and usually derives from
the above-mentioned sources and has the limitations of the parent source.
However, an effort has been made to put together and collate data from different
sources and therefore represents a rich repository of data on rural energy.

Micro-level studies
In addition to the macro-level studies, several micro-level case studies have been
conducted which corroborate the fact that cooking continues to dominate the
rural domestic sector with biomass as the predominant energy source. Some
examples are Nishanka and Misra (1990); Bose et al. (1991); Ravindranath and
Chanakya (1986); Puri (1988) etc. For example, Bose et al. made a comparative
analysis of rural energy consumption patterns and the resource potential of three
un-electrified villages in the tarai region of eastern Uttar Pradesh—Maulaganj
(dist. Gorakhpur), Arro (dist. Pratapgarh), and Bishnapur (dist. Bahraich). The
study mainly examined how the energy consumption patterns in these three
villages – representing agriculturally advanced, moderate, and backward
categories, respectively – are influenced by the local availability of energy
resources. The analysis indicated a heavy reliance on biomass fuels (of the order
of 98%) for meeting domestic energy needs. Several such micro-level studies at
the block and district level have also been done by TERI, New Delhi, that has
primarily fed into the REDB database.

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13
Issues in data collection and estimations

Survey information as proportion of households

The problems with such survey related information are several. Many a times the
survey information on end-uses is not given in terms of energy shares, but rather
as the proportion of households that use certain energy sources to satisfy
different end-uses (example, GoI. 1995. Housing and Amenities. Occasional
Paper No. 5 of 1994. Census of India. New Delhi: Government of India; NCAER.
1981. Domestic Fuel Survey with Special Reference to Kerosene (1978/79). New
Delhi: National Council for Applied Economic Research; GoI. 1979; National
Sample Survey 1973/74, 28th round. Report of the Working Group on Energy
Policy. New Delhi: Government of India). Data of this kind cannot be used to
estimate actual consumption for each energy source or end-use accurately. This is
especially true where many households use multiple energy sources for specific
end-uses, such as firewood and kerosene for cooking or kerosene and electricity
for lighting. Similarly, information on impact of incomes on energy transitions is
also given in % terms as percentage of rural households by primary source of
energy for cooking for each MPCE class (e.g. NSSO. March 1997. Energy used by
Indian households. Report No. 410/2. New Delhi: National Sample Survey
Organization. Department of Statistics, Government of India). Such data set
again is not very useful, considering that rural households are known to use multi
fuels and for many the primary source of energy is more a factor of availability or
is guided by socio-cultural preferences.

Survey information as end-use consumption

End-use consumption is often difficult to define because one appliance frequently

provides several end-use services. For example, a cooking fire often serves as the
only source of space heating, water heating and, in many cases, lighting. In
addition, unless repeat surveys are carried out in the different seasons, a skewed
picture of energy consumption may emerge. Further, most of the survey
information is presented fuel wise rather than end-use wise.

14
Use of recall based method
Some of the survey information is based on recall. The biases introduced as a
result can skew the estimations. Field experience shows that people often over
estimate the amount of fuel they use for a particular end use. This is generally
done with the objective that some project and programme will then be
implemented to reduce such high consumption levels and therefore the people
hope for receiving some benefit. Further, especially in case of traditional fuels
such as biomass, people find it difficult to ‘average’ the amount of wood they
might be using in a day. Often people get confused between the head loads they
carry and the quantities they feed into the fire. Attempts are made to carry out
some measurements like weighing how much one basket or head load of wood or
dung cake weighs. However, still, estimations tend to be over- or in some cases
under-stated.

Similarly, the information collected in consumer expenditure surveys is also

normally based on respondents' recollections of expenditures over a recent
period, such as the preceding week. In urban areas it is easier since bills (of
electricity and LPG) are available. Estimates are, therefore, reasonably good.
With all other energy sources, especially biomass fuels, there are obvious risks
that respondents fail to estimate their expenditure (if any) correctly. Further,
with the flat rate tariff for fuels such as electricity in the rural areas, it is difficult
to relate expenditure with consumption levels.

Lack of end-use wise consumption data for conventional fuels

With regard to conventional energy sources, such as electricity and kerosene, a
disaggregation of the major demand categories into end-uses is difficult, since
organized efforts to study patterns of rural energy use are few and far between.
Often, the main sources of consumption data are the supply companies and
utilities, but their data is seldom broken down by end-use or even end-user
groups.

In the context of rural electrification in India, the information primarily is

reported in terms of villages or households electrified. On the other hand, the
information on un-electrified villages in each state is difficult to come by since
these are remote and are geographically scattered. Also the information on
percentage of households using electricity is generally based on the census data.

15
The sample surveys cater more to the issue of energy expenditure than rural
electrification. The quality aspect of rural energy is merely anecdotal and no
systematic information exists on it. Alternatively, the grid reach information is
provided in terms of circuit kilometres of network developed. It is very difficult to
get the information on where all these grids are available and also the future
plans for its extension at any central location. Neither is it possible to get
information on the load that can be supported at the village electrification points.

Issues in local surveys

The consumption data for traditional fuels in national-level assessments are
generally approximate, based on assumptions, given that these fuels are either
collected from the surrounding countryside or are traded in informal markets.
Thus, the only way to determine traditional fuel consumption more accurately is
by conducting local surveys of household and fuel trading practices. Although
many such surveys have been conducted in India, few of them have been large
enough or carefully prepared enough to provide reliable estimates of national or
sub-regional consumption of traditional fuels. In addition, surveys are seldom
repeated at regular intervals. Without such surveys, national energy balances are
of little value in assessing trends in household energy use.

Issues in making assessments for energy transitions: level and extent

Income and energy transitions
With regard to the estimation of energy consumption, estimates of per capita
energy consumption have been used in the past that are based on field surveys
and trends in population growth. This is partly because there is very little
evidence of a correlation between energy consumption and income in rural areas.

To exemplify this, the data presented in Figure 5 below relates to percentage of

households electrified according to MPCE levels. The Y-axis represents the
monthly per capita expenditure class. The upper and lower bounds of the MPCE
for each category has changed between the two time periods, but have a one-to-
one correspondence. The interesting fact is that the percentage point increase is
nearly uniform across the MPCE classes. The middle shows the bulge but ever so
slightly. One needs to take into account the fact that only 86% of villages in India
are electrified and the above sample is across all the rural areas. If one were to
assume that the sample reflects the percentage of villages electrified, then the

16
percentage of households using electricity as primary souce of energy would be
approximately 61 per cent. This also reflects the fact that there is not much
correlation between expenditure levels and level of electrification.

Figure 5 Percentage of households using electricity as

the main source of lighting per MPEC

99-00
90 93-94
% point Increase
80

70
Percentage

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
5

25 5

30 0

34 0

38 0

42 0

47 0

52 5

61 5

77 5

95 50

e
22

25

30

34

38

42

47

52

61

77

or
9

m
0-

5-

5-

0-

0-

0-

0-

0-

5-

5-

5-

0-
22

MPEC Class

Field experience also suggests that the switch to the use of superior fuels (e.g.,
LPG) is more to do with just increase in incomes. A primary energy survey in
Jalore district in Rajasthan, done by TERI (2001) (Figure 6), showed that people

Figure 6 Fuel consumption vs primary occupation of

households, district Jalore, Rajasthan
8.00
7.00
Per household fuel

6.00
consumption

5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00
Kr l/m LPG kg/m FW kg/day CR kg/day DC kg/day
Type
17 of fuel

Agriculture Business Service

who are in service are using more LPG than those households whose primary
occupation is agriculture. It was found that the people in service had better access
(frequent trips to the urban centres on account of their work, hence refilling was
not an inconvenience), increased level of awareness regarding the fuel and its
usage (no misconceptions such as bursting of cylinder) etc. play a more
important role in determining the switch over.

Variations in estimations
The national level aggregates of rural domestic energy consumption, as estimated
by different studies, are presented in Table 2. It is apparent that across the
different agencies responsible for data collection there are large and significant
variations in estimations (Box 1). This makes it extremely difficult to use the data
for planning or projecting rural energy requirements.
Table 2 Estimation of household energy consumption (biofuels) - national
aggregates
Data Source Year of Fuelwood Dung- Crop
study cake residues

NCAER (1962-63, million tonne) 1962 97.2 52.2 26.4 (26.4)

FPC (1971, million tonne) 1974 122.8 67.3 37.8
WGEP (1976, million tonne) 1979 133.1 73.0 41.0
NCAER (1978-79, million tonne) 1985 79.3 66.7 29.5
REDB (1991, million tonne/yr) 1991 181.3 40.1 31.6
IREP (1992, million tonne/yr) 1992 169.0 54.2 62.8

Note: figure in parentheses pertain to rural areas

Source: Gupta and Ahuja, 1992; TERI, 1992; and NCAER, 1985.

Box 1 National aggregates: variations in estimations

There is a wide variation of estimates in annual (1991) rural wood usage pattern
(excluding crop residues and dung), in different studies undertaken by different
agencies like NCAER (1985), FSI (1988), IREP, and Joshi et al. (1992), ranging
from 93mt (110kg/capita/yr) to 309 mt (492kg/capita/yr). The case studies done
at the village level also show that the per capita fuelwood usage (excluding crop
residue and dung ) ranges between these two extremes (288.35mt).There is

18
another estimate ( 252mt/yr) calculated on the basis of the three estimates given
by Joshi et al. (1992), which is much higher than the estimates of fuelwood use
by FSI (1988) made for 1986, by NCAER (1985) for 1978/79 and FAO (1993)
calculated for the 1991 population.

This wide variation among different estimates bring out the question as to which
estimate is to be taken for further calculations.

Conclusion
The majority of rural energy data especially on the household energy is derived
from the NCAER and NSSO surveys. Currently, the majority of other agencies
and institutions do not have on their basic mandate rural energy related data
collection. Hence, in order to overcome the problem of lack of consolidated
information related to rural energy demand, supply, and consumption, it is
desirable to allocate the responsibility of data collection to one agency.
Moreover, it will also be necessary to evolve a system of continually updating the
information. The need is to evolve a system to capture the data on an area basis,
focusing on a synergetic approach involving patterns and trends in traditional
and commercial energy consumption, and economic, social and environmental
indicators of rural development.

19
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