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2) The share of modern sources was the highest in the SA IIWhereare villages are near to headquarter or
situated near by the main road connecting headquarter. It is also noted that the share of commercial
fuels was lowest in Karanja region (SA IV), a typical agricultural belt. These trends establish that
nearness to commercial centers and the degree of urbanization motivate and initiate a shift towards
modern sources.
3) The study reassured that the most frequently used source of rural energy is firewood. Among the all
sample villages, all village used fuel wood as the major fuel. For all these villages fuel wood is easily
available from their farm land or the forest area near by them.
4) Modern fuels played relatively an insignificant role in sample villages. However, among them, LPG
and Grid electricity is the most important one and Kerosene is the least preferred because of other
cheap and efficient resources available in the area. From the study it was felt that Kerosene could
not create much impact on rural community. This may be due to the easy accessibility to other
alternative fuels in rural areas in relation to the limited supply of Kerosene.
5) The share of collected (free) fuels is high in all sample villages. This confirms the earlier argument
that nearness to source of fuel material is an important determinant in deciding the type of fuel.
6) In all the villages the most important end use is cooking. For other purposes like lighting, water
heating and transportation majority of the rural flock preferred different fuels subject to the
convenience and availability. It was interesting to note that not a single household used electricity
for cooking.
7) Among the non-commercial sources, firewood is the dominant fuel in all the income categories.
Hence it may be inferred that the type of fuel and the income levels are not significantly associated.
Rather than income, status and availability still influence the preferences for fuels.
8) As mentioned earlier, a major portion of energy is used for cooking among all income categories.
Within this broad trend, some association was noticed between the levels of income and the
proportion of energy used for ‘lighting and others’. This suggests that the energy used for ‘lighting
and others’ is linked to the socio-economic profile of the households. One of the arguments to
prove this claim is the high correlation observed between the uses of electricity for lighting among
higher income brackets. On the other hand, the lower income groups depend to a greater extend, on
kerosene for ‘lighting and others’.
9) The study established that the level of energy consumed and the family size are directly related to a
large extent. As a corollary to the earlier argument, it may be said that higher.
10) Kerosene was used by a good per cent of households either as a major lighting fuel or as a
supplementary fuel.
Major Recommendations:
1) The study established that preferences for rural fuel are very much influenced by the availability
of local of fuel materials. Hence while formulating rural energy policies, stress should be given on
identification and managing of locally available fuels. Along with locally available fuels commercial
