I can imagine this be not just an economic intervention but also a health one. If I recall from one of my uni projects, indoor air pollution causes 600k deaths in SSA and the biggest source is burning biomass for cooking (more certain on the first claim, less certain on the second claim).
Another mass media intervention that could be considered is moving families from charcoal to gas or electric. Positive byproducts of the intervention is reducing deforestation and reducing revenue to illicit networks in a place like eastern DRC (where charcoal “makala” is harvested in protected parks).
Fascinating. I have Indian roots and was born in the UK, while my parents hail from East Africa (Uganda and Kenya). Growing up as vegetarians, our household frequently featured beans and pulses in our meals. It was customary for us to soak beans overnight and also to pre-soak rice before cooking.
Reflecting on my own experiences, I had always assumed that soaking beans was a common practice in both India and Africa. However, this post has brought me new information. Nevertheless, I still maintain a belief, with about 60% confidence, that soaking is prevalent in India, as many Indian recipes I’ve encountered often recommend this step.
Thanks Cetter what an interesting background your family has.
Yes from comments here and the research I’ve done, soaking seems to be mostly the norm in India, while it certainly isn’t in Uganda. Also interesting that you would soak rice as well, I’ve never actually considered that one!
Thanks T.J—yes I mentioned the potential health benefits but they are hard to quantify. There are a lot of reasonable claims of deaths from indoor air pollution in SSA, but finding concrete benefits in large studies from reducing indoor smoke have as of yet been elusive. For example Givewell did a literature review on potential health benefits of converting to clean cookstoves and found nothing conclusive. I still think there is almost certainly a significant health benefit from reduced time breathing in that nasty smoke. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a cooking hut, its quite an experience—somtimes smoke is so thick you can’t see the far wall.
On the moving to gas, that’s a reasonable ida although there is quite a big initial capital expenditure, and here in Uganda at least cooking beans for 2 hours with gas still costs more than 2 hours with charcoal—it surprises me that DRC is different and that gas is actually cheaper there.
As a side note here charcoal is “Maka”, so a similar name!
Moving to electric is more reasonable as it will likely be cheaper than charcoal, but power outages are so common it can’t be relied on. That’s a huge behaviour change which again that has a very high initial capital cost so would be very difficult—personally I don’t think it would work in Uganda right now at least.
I can imagine this be not just an economic intervention but also a health one. If I recall from one of my uni projects, indoor air pollution causes 600k deaths in SSA and the biggest source is burning biomass for cooking (more certain on the first claim, less certain on the second claim).
Another mass media intervention that could be considered is moving families from charcoal to gas or electric. Positive byproducts of the intervention is reducing deforestation and reducing revenue to illicit networks in a place like eastern DRC (where charcoal “makala” is harvested in protected parks).
Fascinating. I have Indian roots and was born in the UK, while my parents hail from East Africa (Uganda and Kenya). Growing up as vegetarians, our household frequently featured beans and pulses in our meals. It was customary for us to soak beans overnight and also to pre-soak rice before cooking.
Reflecting on my own experiences, I had always assumed that soaking beans was a common practice in both India and Africa. However, this post has brought me new information. Nevertheless, I still maintain a belief, with about 60% confidence, that soaking is prevalent in India, as many Indian recipes I’ve encountered often recommend this step.
Thanks Cetter what an interesting background your family has.
Yes from comments here and the research I’ve done, soaking seems to be mostly the norm in India, while it certainly isn’t in Uganda. Also interesting that you would soak rice as well, I’ve never actually considered that one!
Thanks T.J—yes I mentioned the potential health benefits but they are hard to quantify. There are a lot of reasonable claims of deaths from indoor air pollution in SSA, but finding concrete benefits in large studies from reducing indoor smoke have as of yet been elusive. For example Givewell did a literature review on potential health benefits of converting to clean cookstoves and found nothing conclusive. I still think there is almost certainly a significant health benefit from reduced time breathing in that nasty smoke. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a cooking hut, its quite an experience—somtimes smoke is so thick you can’t see the far wall.
https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/clean-cookstoves
On the moving to gas, that’s a reasonable ida although there is quite a big initial capital expenditure, and here in Uganda at least cooking beans for 2 hours with gas still costs more than 2 hours with charcoal—it surprises me that DRC is different and that gas is actually cheaper there.
As a side note here charcoal is “Maka”, so a similar name!
Moving to electric is more reasonable as it will likely be cheaper than charcoal, but power outages are so common it can’t be relied on. That’s a huge behaviour change which again that has a very high initial capital cost so would be very difficult—personally I don’t think it would work in Uganda right now at least.