Vol.9(3), pp. 39-46, March 2017 DOI: 10.5897/JAERD2016.0809 Articles Number: BC76D5163141 ISSN 2141-2170 Copyright ©2017 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/JAERD Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Full Length Research Paper Perceived shortcomings of Mirte stove in Ethiopia: The case of Agarfa District, Oromia Region, Ethiopia Biruk Fikadu Gebreyess 1 *, Negussie Zeray 2 , Belesti Wodaje 3 , Debela Bonsa 4 and Haymanot Asfaw 5 1 Economics and Extension, Department of Agricultural, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Jimma University, P. O. BOX 307, Jimma, Ethiopia. 2 Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Dilla University, P. O. Box 419. Dilla. SNNPR, Ethiopia. 3 Department of Development studies, College of Agriculture, Haramaya University, P. O. Box 138 Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. 4 Ardayta Agricultural TVET College, Ardayta, Ethiopia. 5 Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, P. O. Box: 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Received 3 August, 2016; Accepted 3 November, 2016 The national energy balance indicates that traditional fuels (wood, charcoal, agricultural residues and animal waste) meet 94% of the total energy supplied and that the household sector accounts for 90% of the total energy consumed in the country. The vast majority of Ethiopian households depend on the open fire stoves with very poor fuel efficiency. Due to the shortage of firewood growing in Ethiopian communities, baking injera on open fire is becoming increasingly expensive. Currently Mirte injera baking stove has been produced and promoted to improve the livelihoods of the rural and urban households in the country. The major concern of this study was to identify the major shortcomings of the Mirte stove being promoted as perceived by the households: the case of Agarfa district, Oromia region. A two stage random sampling procedure was employed to draw 120 sample households from four sample Kebeles. Descriptive statistics were employed in the study. The results of the study showed that there are some major shortcomings of Mirte stove. The overall findings of the study underline the importance of strengthening institutions that can continuously following up the perceived shortcomings of Mirte stove and make necessary improvements and modifications on it. Thus, research should re-examine the shortcomings of the Mirte stove. Key words: Injera, perception, shortcoming, stove, technology. INTRODUCTION According to Adkins et al. (2010), roughly half of the world's population burns solid biomass fuels for cooking and heating needs. They also mentioned that throughout poor, rural areas of sub Saharan Africa, biomass is the *Corresponding author. E-mail: birukfe@gmail.com. Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License