Returns, setbacks, and future prospects of bio-energy promotion in northern Ethiopia: the case of family-sized biogas energy

Table 2 Description of the independent variables used to explain the probability of adopting biogas technology

Name of the variable	Nature of the variable	Hypothesized relationship with the dependent variable (biogas adoption)	Description of the variable
Age	Continuous	Positive/negative	Age of the household head in years
Sex	Dummy	Positive/negative	Sex of the household head; a dummy variable for gender relationships (male = 1, female = 0)
Family size	Continuous	Positive/negative	Family size of the household
Education	Continuous	Positive	Education level of the household head in years
Cattle holding	Continuous	Positive	Number of cattle owned by the household (heads/hh)
Annual income	Continuous	Positive	Annual income of the household in ETB
DistFire	Continuous	Positive	Distance to nearest firewood collection site in kilometer
DistWater	Continuous	Negative	Distance to nearest permanent water point in kilometer
DistMarket	Continuous	Positive/negative	Distance to nearest market in kilometer
Availability of electricity	Dummy	Negative	Availability of modern fuels mainly electricity (yes = 1, otherwise = 0)
Farm size	Continuous	Positive	Total size of farm plots owned and operated by the household in Tsimad
Fertility status	Categorical	Positive/negative	Fertility status of farm plot (1 = poor, 2 = medium, 3 = good)
Farm location	Continuous	Negative	Distance between house and farm of the household in kilometer
Extension service	Continuous	Positive	Frequency of contacts between agricultural extension worker and the household (frequency in a year)