The moderating effects of land and cattle ownership on the use of biomass as cooking fuel in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, rural households commonly use solid biomass from agricultural residue or cattle manure as cooking fuel, posing serious health, environmental, and socio-economic challenges. To address this problem, this study investigates the factors influencing the use of agricultural residue and cattle manure as major cooking fuels, focusing on how land and cattle ownerships influence these choices. Using binary logistic and probit models based on the 2019 household data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey in Bangladesh, the analysis reveals that land and cattle ownerships significantly affect the selection of these traditional fuels. As per the study, when significant amounts of agricultural land are owned, it is primarily used as fertilizer, diminishing its use as a fuel. Additionally, combined cattle and land ownership further decreases its use, suggesting that agrarian biomass is prioritized as animal feed. These findings highlight that clean cooking fuels can be promoted by utilizing cattle manure as fertilizers and agricultural residues as animal feed rather than as cooking fuel, indicating policy directions that encourage targeting the landowner communities for alternative economic uses of agricultural byproducts, thereby decreasing their use as cooking fuels.