ABSTRACT
The scarcest resource of all in most developing countries is trained management ability--the ability to organize and administer, to create an organization and to make it work. The most expensive form of energy is human energy, as can easily be seen if we consider how much food it takes to keep a man going at hard manual labor. To be most useful in less developed countries, any potential energy source should have a low capital output ratio, the income obtained each year should be at least half and preferably equal to the capital investment. Any energy source for developing countries at the present time should be manpower-intensive rather than capital-intensive. Its development should use people rather than capital because people are less expensive and more abundant than capital in most less developed countries. In the hills of Nepal the farmers are reluctant to use the new dwarf varieties of rice because these new varieties do not produce much straw.
