Chapter 1 - Nanotechnology in rural development

Abstract

After World War II and particularly since second half of the last century there has been tremendous population growth across the world. Further, there exist a big demographic divide in rural and urban areas of developing and underdeveloped countries to the disadvantage of rural population in terms of their employment opportunities and socioeconomic status. Such disparity generally drives migration of rural youths to urban areas in search of jobs, better living, and education of their children while leaving behind a legacy of emptiness in rural areas. Such a scenario, where farming sector is already saturated, has forced for long the country planners and successive governments to reverse the trend of migration and create opportunities for employment more so in nonfarming sector and better living conditions in rural areas. To do so, the help of technologies and that of newer technologies are very much needed. The present book is designed to make use of nanotechnology in rural sector in various ways such as agriculture, food processing, managements of waste biomass and waste water, harnessing of renewable energy, and various employment generation schemes particularly in nonfarming sectors. The present chapter briefly introduces the salient features of nanotechnology including its historical perspective, nature, synthesis, unique properties, and applications of nanomaterials. It is to ensure the implementation of nanotechnology in various platforms to uplift the socioeconomic status of rural population by making a basic understanding about the nanotechnology itself.