Improved Cooking Stoves in Nepal

Improved cook stove (ICS) is a device that is designed to consume less fuel and save cooking time, convenient in cooking process and creates smokeless environment in the kitchen or reduction in the volume of smoke produced during cooking against the traditional stove.
The direct and indirect benefits of ICS includes: increased thermal efficiency, the conservation of forests by cutback in firewood consumption, reduction in women’s labour, reduction in indoor air pollution and hence smoke-released health disorders, prevention of fire hazards, reduction of cooking time.
History of ICS in Nepal
Improved cooking stoves (ICS) programs started in early 1950s in Nepal. At that time "Hydarabad and Magan stoves" (an Indian model of ICS) were implemented as part of Village Development Services of the " Tribhuvan Village Development Program”. That program was ended in the early 1960s. After that a number of organizations such as UNICEF, Peace Corps etc. have integrated ICS dissemination in their other development activities during 1970s.
In 1980s the National Planning Commission included ICS in a Plan document in attempt to address the pressing fuelwood problem. In 1981 [[Community Forest Development Project]] (CFDP) developed prefabricated ceramic ICS. In 1982, prefabricated ceramic stoves were tested, and after some modification, RECAST developed Ceramics Insert Stoves.
During 1985 Small Farmer Development Project (SFDP) of Agriculture Development Bank (ADB/N) distributed Ceramic Insert Stoves. Other major organizations and projects which took up further ICS dissemination efforts include United Mission to Nepal (UMN), [[Terai Community Forestry Development Project]] (TCFDP), Nepal-Australian Forestry Project, [[Resource Conservation and Utilization Project]] (RCUP), CARE/Nepal etc.
RECAST developed a new model of a stove known as "Improved Tamang Stove". They tried to make the stove with cheap readily available local materials. Since early 1990s, new initiatives from various NGOs, INGOs and GOs, for ICS dissemination have been underway.
Most of the organizations working on ICS programs concentrate on Midhill and Terai regions, and they are mainly working on Mud Stoves. Very few of them are involved in high altitude places, and very few work on metal stoves. Cost is the factor making it difficult to work on metal stoves.