Determinants of Household Energy Use for Cooking in Tanzania

Abstract This article aims to examine determinants that influence the choice of energy fuel for cooking among households in Tanzania mainland. The study employed descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse data from the 2017/18 Tanzania Household Budget Survey. Regarding the main source of energy used for cooking descriptive statistics revealed that the majority (66.5%) of the households use firewood for cooking and 24.6% use charcoal while only 8.8% use other (non-biomass fuels). This indicates that the majority (91.1%) relies on traditional fuel(biomass) for Cooking in Tanzania. Based on Inferential statistics, the chi-square test found that all independent variables except Marital status and income variables were statistically significant predictors of the study dependent variable in Tanzania at a 5 per cent significant level. On the other hand, multinomial logistic model results showed that households with few members, younger heads, male-headed, not employed heads, heads having a higher level of education, located in urban and married heads were less likely to use firewood and charcoal as the main fuel type for cooking than the other types of energy such as electricity, kerosene, industrial gas, coal, generator, and solar. The researcher recommends the use of these findings in formulating appropriate policies to improve access to affordable modern energy to lessen the environmental and health impact of biomass energy use. Keywords: Households Traditional energy, Modern Energy fuel, Multinomial Logistic Model