Producing and

selling charcoal:
income for women
and benefits to the
environment

GRANT RESULTS
L SHEET
© INBAR

Goals and objectives

The goal of the grant was to develop home-based production of charcoal from
cooking with firewood into a new livelihood opportunity – and thus create a
sustainable value chain for the economic empowerment of poor rural women.

Women from poor rural households in Ethiopia, India and Tanzania were trained
to put out fires when they had finished cooking in order to prevent smouldering,
The goal of this and to collect household charcoal through collection clusters, process it into
briquettes and market the output through innovative partnership-based
grant was to create enterprises.
more income for The objectives of the grant were as follows:

women without  Introduce selected women to the concept that residual charcoal from
firewood can generate income without creating work.
more work by  Establish local systems such as collection clusters, cooperatives and
selling charcoal microenterprises; strengthen existing self-help groups that have
microfinance linkages; and provide financing and logistics that enable on-
from cooking with the-spot payment for collecting and aggregating charcoal.

firewood  Develop simple quality standards for direct sale and for processing into
charcoal powder, briquettes, activated charcoal and other products.
 Introduce the concepts of carbon economy and carbon credit systems.
 Initiate a step-by-step process to promote the cultivation of sustainable
bamboo and other types of biomass and the use of pyrolytic gasifier
cooking stoves, which have cooking times similar to those of common
rural wood stoves but require less firewood, produce more and better
charcoal, and reduce emissions for healthier domestic air quality.

Beneficiaries
Poor rural women were the primary beneficiaries because they are typically
responsible for cooking in households. Household charcoal (HHC) has the
potential to change charcoal production globally into a female-dominated
activity, in contrast to commercial wood charcoal, which is male-dominated.
Since cooking takes place throughout the year, it is possible to generate year-
round benefits, income security and resilience. The women involved are pleased
their role now extends beyond that of housewife to include self-employed
entrepreneur.
 Widows (in widows’ associations in Tanzania) and single mothers are able to
get by with the income HHC provides. In Mandla (India), 15-20 per cent of
charcoal was produced from cooking, with a daily production of 0.8-
1.0 kg/household. This has become an important source of income in India
and Africa.
Almost 15,000 poor rural women directly benefited from the grant – five times
the target of 3,000: 7,619 from Rajasthan, India, 4,349 from Tanzania and
2,990 from Gujarat, India. Their households were indirect beneficiaries. In
Ethiopia, women in 22 community kitchens produced charcoal and charcoal
briquettes.

Main results
 Market transformation HHC is a newly developed economic asset. It can
potentially benefit the 500 million households that cook food using
fuelwood. It can transform charcoal markets across Africa and
elsewhere. Work is under way to address the need for lower-density,
easier-to-light HHC briquettes, and a single-phase lower-cost briquetting
machine, as a prelude to further replication and scaling up. A wider
outreach programme to government, public and private donors, ongoing
loan projects and climate change funds would be undertaken through a
dedicated institutional vehicle, given that this goes beyond INBAR’s
mandate and the number of potential beneficiaries is high.

 Environment and climate change focus. The volume of HHC (which is

non-degradable and can be stored) currently produced by 500 million
poor rural households at 10 per cent yield is nearly four times the
volume of commercial wood charcoal produced worldwide. The grant
Facts at a glance demonstrated that using a basic rocket stove and quenching the hot
charcoal produced while cooking is enough to double the yield from 10
Grant implementing agency to 20 per cent. Globally, at a 10 per cent yield, 500 million households
International Network for Bamboo &
annually produce 183 million tons of HHC worth US$ 37 billion, which is
Rattan (INBAR)
669 million tons of CO sequestered. At a 20 per cent yield with
Theme improved stoves, 365 million tons of HHC worth US$73 billion is
Empowering poor rural women produced annually, which is 1,338 million tons of CO2 sequestered.
Benefiting countries  Incentivized plantings of woody biomass. The fact that fuelwood
Ethiopia, India (Rajasthan and Gujarat) collection contributes significantly to forest degradation needs to be
and Tanzania strategically considered when popularizing the HHC model. Not only is
Total programme cost HHC a means of generating income, it is also a value-added product
US$350,000 that is of greater value than the fuelwood is derives from. Biomass is
now seen as a means to value addition, which is an incentive to women
IFAD contribution: US$300,000
to undertake planting. HHC is thus an incentive for reversing forest
Fund leveraging degradation. Bamboo for fuelwood and biomass was promoted as the
US$20,000 – CIBART for India most sustainable and affordable option as it is fast-growing and grows
US$15,000 – INBAR for Ethiopia year-round. Cultivation of other biomass plants was also encouraged.
Partners  Development of appropriate processing machinery and stoves. A low-
Center for Indian Bamboo Resource and cost pulverizer was developed in Ethiopia and replicated in India. A
Technology (CIBART), Isongole simple foot-operated hydraulic briquetting machine was also designed.
Bamboo Cooperative Society, Wodgra Extrusion briquetting of diverse agri-wastes using screw-briquetting
and Jan Chetna Sansthan machines to produce sustainable “fuelwood” was tested and is being
Effectiveness and duration taken forward under another grant. A trial of the common concrete mixer
May 2012 to September 2014 to mix pulverized charcoal, binder and water is planned. In addition, the
introduction of gasifier cook-stoves that produce two to three times more
Linkages to IFAD investment charcoal – and hence generate two to three times more income – would
projects constitute a further economic incentive to use fuelwood and biomass
 Community-based integrated natural from sustainable sources.
resources management project,
Ethiopia
  Enhanced access to services to reduce poverty, improve nutrition, raise incomes and
build resilience. The model was embraced enthusiastically by the women as an
activity that is already an intrinsic part of their lives and has begun to bring in an
additional income for them and their families. The round-the-year income from HHC
builds resilience. The value of the HHC and briquettes produced exceeds that of the
fuelwood used.
 Poor rural women and men and their organizations are able to manage profitable,
sustainable and resilient farm and non-farm enterprises. Each household becomes a
microenterprise and the women become microentrepreneurs.
 Enabling institutional and policy environments to support agricultural production and
the full range of related non-farm activities. The HHC microenterprises are linked to
collection centres and to the briquetting enterprise. Three inclusive processing
enterprises were established using an innovative NCPP enterprise institutional model
15,000 rural
with the local NGO, Community women and development Professionals in women are
Partnership. Policy dialogue has taken place with regulators/forest department to
distinguish HHC from commercial charcoal and to establish a common legal pleased they are
framework for HHC production, processing and transportation.
now self-
Keli Bai Reshma, Age 45, Dhansaram village, Rajasthan employed
Every day, like 500 million women around the world, Keli Bai Reshma entrepreneurs
cooks using firewood. And with four growing children and a husband
who is hungry before and after working in the fields, daily meals are as well as being
an essential part of family life. But cooking has become more than
that – it has become an opportunity for Keli Bai Reshma and the housewives
other women of Dhansaram village to make money. Through this
initiative she realized that the firewood she was burning for cooking
became charcoal if she sprinkled water on it on time to stop it
turning into ash and she could produce up to 0.8 kg a day. In a week,
that would be as much as 5.6 kg of charcoal.

At INR 8 per kg, INBAR and NGO partners are making the most of
their strong rural community networks to let women know about the
income they can make from an activity they do every day. Bhakhar
Bhitrot Adiwasi Vikas Manch, the community-based organization for
which Keli Bai Reshma is a leader, is one such network that has
helped reach out to the women. Instead of throwing away the waste
charcoal, the women of Dhansaram village now collect it in a basket
and carry it to the local collection cente every week. This brings them
an average of INR 180 each per month; in a year, that amounts to
more than INR 2,000, without any additional work.
The HHC model
was shortlisted
for the 2013
Lessons learned
Global
 The HHC model is easy to replicate in many contexts and has great potential for
scaling up. Policy advocacy and dialogue are needed to enable larger-scale uptake. Development
 Charcoal-pulverizing and briquetting machines that operate on single-phase power Network award in
and work with lower volumes are better suited for rural areas.
 Consumers prefer briquettes that light up quickly. Producing this type of briquette
the “Most
would further strengthen the appeal of HHC briquettes in the market. Innovative
 Seed capital is often needed as a revolving fund to set up processing facilities; loans
Development
could be repaid through HHC sales.
 HHC briquettes are a new concept and need initial promotion. Idea” category
 The pyrolytic biomass gasifier, which produces both power and charcoal, is an
excellent entry point in areas where power is not available for briquetting and
domestic lighting.
 HHC encourages women to grow bamboo for fuelwood; biomass from farm agri-
waste is also a sustainable source of fuelwood (and HHC) and should become the
policy norm. Together, they would help reverse deforestation.
 Even if women have to buy fuelwood to produce HHC, they still make a profit on the
charcoal produced.
 Way forward
The potential for scaling up the initiative is unprecedented because it is so simple to set up
and some 500 million households are already producing HHC. Strategies could be
developed to promote it further, for the benefit of both women producers and the
environment.

HHC is the most objectively measurable and simple means of carbon capture and storage.
It also has potential as biochar for nutrient delivery and agricultural productivity
enhancement.

Policy support is needed to encourage larger-scale charcoal collection and processing. HHC
is a step towards environmental conservation, unlike the destructive and low-yield
charcoaling of timber. Social, carbon and sustainable certification of HHC, with its attributes
of gender empowerment and equality, would help expand the market and reduce
environmental degradation.

Knowledge generated
For the beneficiaries, the knowledge that the charcoal produced each time they cook and
which they once discarded without a thought has an intrinsic cash value is invaluable. That
they can earn this income each and every day of the year without doing additional work
makes them feel more secure.

For the associated NGOs and project staff, the knowledge of value is that here is a robust
means of generating income in rural areas through an energy product that uses a set of
validated methodologies, institutional systems, and logistical and financial arrangements,
has been trialled in different markets and has been shown to be profitable.

For governments, it is important to know about this relatively benign charcoal production
system that is already yielding four times the volume of commercial charcoal produced
globally (and this could increase up to eight to ten times) because it could be the answer to
the rampant deforestation caused in great part by the production of commercial charcoal.

Also of value is the knowledge gained through the South-South twinning of institutions
across regions. The experience and institutional model in Gujarat were used to help set up
IFAD contact the unit in Rajasthan and, together, they contributed to the establishment of the unit in
Maria Hartl
Gender and Social Equity
Tanzania.
Email: m.hartl@ifad.org
There is great interest in the benefits of HHC and in the pyrolytic gasifier installation, which
also has other advantages. Several case studies on HHC have demonstrated the benefits
this knowledge has brought to the women, their households and their wider communities.
HHC is touching the lives of poor rural women in more ways than expected. CIBART and other
partners plan to publish a book about this groundbreaking initiative.

Reports, Manuals, Business Plans

 HHC survey reports, collection data, incremental income calculations
 Awareness-raising/training kit on charcoal production
 Manual for social workers on HHC, honeycomb briquette-making
Partner contacts
I.V. Ramanuja Rao  Institutional model and business plans
Project Coordinator, INBAR  Calorific test reports
Email: ivramarao@gmail.com,
ivramarao@outlook.com  Pyrolytic gasifier and rocket stoves, and charcoal briquette stoves
 Pyrolytic biomass gasifier producing quality charcoal and power
 HHC case studies from India and Tanzania

Videos
For feedback and queries:
 Charcoal hammer mill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQlHM0htODI;
ptakmmailbox@ifad.org
 Charcoal briquette mould: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecRuXGpWCFI;
 Honeycomb briquettes made in Ethiopia
January 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDx2TmusyVA