ethanol fuel production and use in kenya for sustainable ... - lumes

TimeThe questionnaires for the research were to be done via the post and email. This delayed theproject as about three weeks were spent waiting for the questionnaires which were importantfor the background information on ethanol to be sent back. None of them were sent backrequiring personal travel to the field which was time-consuming.Financial Resources:This limited the field survey to Nairobi which is the capital city and Chuka since these twotowns were easily accessible and had cheaper accommodation.Literature:It was difficult to get clear information on the status of ethanol in Kenya and what led to theshut down of the ethanol plant that had been put up in the 80s.Field data:There was sufficient data from the field due to the low response to the questionnaires howeverthe interview sessions were successful. From the study it was observed that questionnairesmay not be have been the best way to obtain data from the field especially from governmentoffices since it appeared that all that filled in the questionnaires had been copied from the onesource the end result was a collection of uniformly answered questionnaires and a reportcontaining the same information. Consequently the study focused on the data from the booksand reports given since the answers had been lifted one by word from them. Other problemsincluded that some interviewees were unwilling to give information unless bribed this made itdifficult to know which people genuinely did not know the answers or those that wanted tipsin order to speak.The sugar beet farmers’ questionnaires were only used to counter check the range of figuresinformation contained in the reports (Kiriita 2001, 2002 and 2003) as these reports containedfield data from the same farmers. In addition these questionnaires were only from Centralprovince an area that does not grow sugarcane thus for the comparisons on the productioncosts between sugarcane and sugar beet, the information from (Mumias sugar Company 2003reports were used) since it had both the costs for sugarcane and for the sugar beets.1.2.2 Data Analysis:The data findings were analysed using;• Comparative analysis: This was done on the impacts of petroleum and ethanol on thethree spheres of sustainable development which comprise of the social, economic andenvironmental dimensions.• Literature review: Where government reports, scientific journals, reports from sugarbeet trial fields and case studies mainly from Brazil were used for the analysis.• Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) were used for the conceptual model and thepresentation of results. A CLD is a tool that is used in systems analysis approach tounderstand causes and effects, to describe reality through causalities between variablesand how they form a dynamic circular influence (Haraldsson, 2004). It is used toobserve the world through feedbacks rather than linearly and observes repeated3