Author: Freudenberger Karen
Publisher: Routledge Ltd
ISSN: 1364-9213
Source: Development in Practice, Vol.4, Iss.1, 1994-01, pp. : 13-22
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
Abstract
This article discusses the difficulties of reaching relatively poor populations with labour-saving technologies. Taking the case of milling and dehulling technologies in Senegal and The Gambia, it presents a simple analytic model that helps to explain why the vast majority of these labour-saving machines are under-utilised in rural areas. Though donors continue to support such projects widely, in few cases do they provide significant benefits to the broad population in the short term, and nor are they sustainable in the longer term. The key constraint is the lack of effective demand, owing to rural women's limited income-generating opportunities. In the time saved by using a machine to dehull or mill their coarse grains, they are unable to earn enough money even to pay the fees to use the machine, much less to earna surplus.
Related content
By Battisti Martina Deakins David Perry Martin
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol. 19, Iss. 1, 2013-01 ,pp. :