This could just come to an end soon with the fast diminishing resources to sustain production of wood-fuel based energy.

The need to craft strategic alternatives to respond to this challenge is now urgent as the increasing global climate change calls for innovative action.

Wood fuel in terms of raw firewood and carbonized charcoal is the key source of heating energy, which keeps fire burning in a majority of kitchens in the country.

As a result, forests and farmland trees are quickly disappearing as axes cut them down indiscriminately to provide raw materials for fuel production.

A recent report compiled by the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey reveals that a staggering 76.4 percent of households in the country’s rural population, rely predominantly on firewood and charcoal for cooking and heating the homes.

These households still cook using the traditional three-stone open fire hearths, which require huge loads of fire woods to function.

A part from the wanton destruction of the forest cover, these energy sources, also contribute significant pollutants harmful to the environment.

Alarmed by the building up disaster, the Kenyan government and some stakeholders have embarked on a project to mitigate the challenge.

The project, named Promotion of Private Sector Development in Agriculture (PSDA), is designed to disseminate energy saving technologies, geared to improve rural livelihoods.

Speaking to Xinhua in a recent interview on the measures the government has embarked on, Nancy Nguru, the project’s cluster manager for Central Kenya, explained that the core objective is to provide environmental-friendly technologies to improve cooking facilities, reduce fuel intake and pollution.

The first step will be the provision of user friendly technologies to develop energy saving stoves (jikos) for use in ordinary households, hotels and institutions.

The project, she told Xinhua, will be implemented by empowering people in the communities with knowledge, technology and skills on energy saving stoves making process.

The facilities are mostly made of clay soil and cheap metal, which are available cheaply in many parts of the country.

One of the trained stove makers Beatrice Wambui told Xinhua that there is a growing appreciation of the empowering technology in her locality.

With the high cost of charcoal, kerosene and firewood, Wambui pointed out that users have turned into new ways to cope with the situation.

"Women who bore the burden of managing kitchens are adopting the new technology with numbers increasing everyday," she told Xinhua, adding "the stoves are liked by women because they do not consume a lot of firewood.

"They also control emission of smoke and harmful gases."

The stoves, Wambui emphasized, also ensure hygiene in kitchens in addition to cooking fast compared to the three stone hearths.

Jerusha Njeri who has undergone training on how to mould the stoves, affirmed that there are a lot of health benefits being accrued from the new technology.

She told Xinhua that the stoves reduce the possibilities of contracting respiratory ailments.

"Women who have fixed the stoves in their kitchens are reporting less frequent visits to health centers with respiratory ailments.

"Children and the elderly are also reporting less eye pain, coughing and sneezing diseases at households using these appliances."

Njeri said valuable time wasted by women and girls gathering fire woods also is now utilized on gainful social and economic activities.

The project has opened a new line of business and is developing entrepreneurs, producers, installers and marketers.

It has been established that the new technology reduces energy consumption by about 70 per cent compared to the traditional three-stone hearths.

For a wide outreach, the project is establishing community production centres where improved stoves utility is being promoted.

A project implementation strategy document details that the current wood fuel demand stands at 35,119,616 million tones, annually against a supply capacity of 15,024,510 tonnes.

The average firewood consumption per person every day is 1.2 kilogrammes’s, with 97 per cent of households using this fuel as the main energy for cooking.

The demand outstrips supply hence the rapidly disappearing trees in the country’s landscapes.

Majority of urban poor and rural population also depend heavily on wood fuel as alternative sources of energy.