Rural electrification in the context of "Poverty"

Rural economics is the study of rural economies. Rural economies include both agricultural and non-agricultural industries, so rural economics has broader concerns than agricultural economics which focus more on food systems. Rural development and finance attempt to solve larger challenges within rural economics. These economic issues are often connected to the migration from rural areas due to lack of economic activities and rural poverty. Some interventions have been very successful in some parts of the world, with rural electrification and rural tourism providing anchors for transforming economies in some rural areas. These challenges often create rural-urban income disparities.

Rural spaces add new challenges for economic analysis that require an understanding of economic geography: for example understanding of size and spatial distribution of production and household units and interregional trade, land use, and how low population density effects government policies as to development, investment, regulation, and transportation.

Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refers to the build-out of the electricity generation and electric power distribution systems. In the context of sustainable energy, electrification refers to the build-out of super grids and smart grids with distributed energy resources (such as energy storage) to accommodate the energy transition to renewable energy and the switch of end-uses to electricity.

The electrification of particular sectors of the economy, particularly out of context, is called by modified terms such as factory electrification, household electrification, rural electrification and railway electrification. In the context of sustainable energy, terms such as transport electrification (referring to electric vehicles) or heating electrification (referring to heat pumps powered with solar photovoltaics) are used. It may also apply to changing industrial processes such as smelting, melting, separating or refining from coal or coke heating, or from chemical processes to some type of electric process such as electric arc furnace, electric induction or resistance heating, or electrolysis or electrolytic separating.

A portable engine is an engine, either a steam engine or an internal combustion engine, that sits in one place while operating (providing power to machinery), but (unlike a stationary engine) is portable and thus can be easily moved from one work site to another. Mounted on wheels or skids, it is either towed to the work site or moves there via self-propulsion.

Portable engines were in common use in industrialised countries from the early 19th through early 20th centuries, during an era when mechanical power transmission was widespread. Before that, most power generation and transmission were by animal, water, wind, or human; after that, a combination of electrification (including rural electrification) and modern vehicles and equipment (such as tractors, trucks, cars, engine-generators, and machines with their engines built in) displaced most use of portable engines. In developing countries today, portable engines still have some use (typically in the form of modern small engines mounted on boards), although the technologies mentioned above increasingly limit their demand there as well. In industrialised countries they are no longer used for commercial purposes, but preserved examples can often be seen at steam fairs driving appropriate equipment for demonstration purposes.

A kerosene lamp (also known as a paraffin lamp in some countries) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. Kerosene lamps utilize a wick or mantle as a light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a table, or as hand-held lanterns for portable lighting. Like oil lamps, they are useful for lighting without electricity, such as in regions without rural electrification, in electrified areas during power outages, at campsites, and on boats. There are three common types of kerosene lamp: flat-wick, central-draft (tubular round wick), and mantle lamp. Kerosene lanterns meant for portable use have a flat wick and are made in dead-flame, hot-blast, and cold-blast variants.

Pressurized kerosene lamps use a gas mantle; these are known as Petromax, Tilley lamps, or Coleman lamps, among other manufacturers. They produce more light per unit of fuel than wick-type lamps, but are more complex and expensive in construction and more complex to operate. A hand-pump pressurizes air, which forces liquid fuel from a reservoir into a gas chamber. Vapor from the chamber burns, heating a mantle to incandescence and providing heat.

Liberty Hyde Bailey (March 15, 1858 – December 25, 1954) was an American horticulturist and advocate for rural reform in the United States. He was cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science. During the Progressive Era, Bailey was instrumental in establishing the Cooperative Extension System, 4-H youth development programs, the nature study movement, parcel post, and rural electrification. In 1903, Bailey founded the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University and served as its first dean until 1913. Bailey’s work was influential in defining rural sociology as a distinct and valuable field of study in the United States.