Niger

News and Recent Developments

November 2007: At the 2006 International Solar Cookers Conference in Spain, Wietske Jongbloed of the KoZon Foundation learned a useful trick from David and Ruth Whitfield: a heat-retention cooker can be made from empty rice bags. The Whitfields advised that two large rice bags, with insulation such as wool or cotton in between, make a sack that will keep a pot of food at cooking temperatures long after it is removed from a heat source. KoZon introduced the idea in Tahoua, Niger, where cooking pots are typically very large — 12 to 16 liters. For these pots, four rice bags are needed to surround the pot, and a fifth bag stuffed with insulation covers the top. Of this five-bag system, Jongbloed says, “It is named ‘Idadafoua’ and works marvelously.” Jongbloed writes that women in the Sahel cook meals for families of 10 to 12 or more people. The KoZon project in Tahoua teaches the use of three cooking devices — fuel-efficient wood stoves, heat-retention cookers, and solar CooKits. CooKits are used on sunny days for meat or fish sauces, eggs, sweet potatoes, and groundnuts, and for cakes that are sold by the slice to earn money.

November 2006: Wietske Jongbloed reports that she and a team of three others in Tahoua trained 14 women, all teachers and civil servants, in the complimentary technologies of solar cookers, fuel-efficient wood stoves, and heat-retention cookers. The first two days of the training were cloudy, so the focus was on fuel-efficient stoves ("poêle économe") and heat-retention cookers ("bitatoré"). Heat-retention cookers are insulated enclosures in which is set a pot of food that has been brought to a boil, allowing the food to continue to cook after being removed from the heat source. Rice, meat, and legume dishes were cooked successfully using this method. On days three and four the sun started to shine. Peanuts and sweet potatoes were cooked in solar CooKits and shared with five visiting directors of ministries. The directors praised the solar-cooked food, along with the dishes prepared with the other devices. Jongloed recalled, "They asked where the cooked peanuts were, which I thought were meant for the children, and just ate the peanuts up and praised the CooKit in which the peanuts were cooked and made speeches telling us that they would help in all ways if the women of Tahoua could all be taught to use these complimentary devices." On the final day, several banana cakes were baked in CooKits, as were a couple dozen eggs. After the 14 women gain more experience using the three complimentary devices, several of them will be chosen to lead future trainings. The goal is to train close to 200 women, and to provide them each with a CooKit. Affordable purchase plans for the fuel-efficient stoves and heat-retention cookers are being explored. Contact: Wietske Jongbloed, Stichting KoZon, Hollandseweg 384, 6705 BE Wageningen, Netherlands. Tel: 31-317412370, fax: 31-317410732, mailto:wietske-jongbloed@tele2.nl

The History of Solar Cooking in Niger

A representative of the Department of Social Development, Population, Promotion of Women and Welfare of Children, Government of Niger, made a presentation at the conference in Varese in 1999. Outlining the situation in Niger, the Minister, Mme Foumakoye Nana Aicha, discussed the energy situation, highlighting the use of wood in 90% of all households and the serious consumption of forest resources that use represented, as well as the amount of carbon emissions released to the atmosphere. The nation is seeking both to preserve its already fragile environment (around 1% forested land) and to reduce its dependence on imported fuels. A variety of renewable technologies are under consideration, including solar cooking. A National Solar Energy Center has been created and is conducting experiments with parabolic cookers and boxes, for large-scale dissemination, planning for up to 40,000 cookers. The minister's speech illustrated a good understanding of the importance of the topic, in terms of global environmental circumstances (Varese, p. 57). However, no further information is available on the status of the plan at this time.

Against that large vision for Niger, a smaller scale endeavor has been launched by the KoZon Foundation, which has also worked in Burkina Faso and Mali. The inexpensive solar cooking device, the CooKit, was introduced in the Niger town of Kirkissoy, in connection with other local agencies in 2002. No further information is available on the progress of that work, which was only beginning.

Climate, Culture, and Special Considerations

Solar Cookers International has rated Niger as the #15 country in the world in terms of solar cooking potential (See: The 25 countries with the most solar cooking potential). The estimated number of people in Niger with both sun and fuel scarcity in 2020 is 4,800,000.

Documents

Reports

Articles in the media

Web pages

Esther Garvi's recipes for 'famine foods' in Niger

Contacts

A complete list of NGOs and individuals working in Niger is available in the International Directory of Solar Cooking Promotors.

NGOs based in or working in the Niger

Individuals

Paul Munsen

Niger

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