ABSTRACT
Persisting energy crises are seriously affecting the human growth index of rural community. Agriculture, being the main contributor in rural economy, is far below its potential. Despite the potential and resources of sustainable energy we lack policy, strategy, and suitable solutions to harvest this potential effectively. The production potentials from solar, wind, biogas/biomass, and hydroelectricity are 2.9 million MW, 20000 MW, 5000 MW, 45000 MW respectively, whereas rural Pakistan is unable to tap into these resources for the benefit of the farming community. A consolidated and integrated approach is needed to lay down the guidelines of policy making. Although teaching and research and development facilities like the University of Agriculture at Faisalabad (UAF) are actively engaged for development of demand-based energy technologies for value addition and postharvest processing, yet the lack of logistic facilities, financial constraints, deficient skill training, poor infrastructure, nonsustainable policies, and lack of incentivizing are key areas which need to be addressed on a priority basis. The agroclimatic conditions of Pakistan, ranging from tropical to temperate, allow the growing of 40 different kinds of vegetables (3214 thousand ton vegetables) and 21 type of fruits (7051 thousand ton fruits) in addition to a variety of cash crops. Also, Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producing country in the world with 35.6 billion liters (natural contents) of milk per year—despite below 2000 liters per animal yield per annum compared to 9000 liters per animal per year in Europe. This clearly signifies the potential of Pakistani soil enabling farmers to produce a maximum for their own benefit and that of the country. The harvesting problems for the handling of marketable surplus need to be addressed with the available energy resources at the grassroot level. Postharvest losses in perishable and nonperishable food products are 20–25% and 15–20%, respectively. These losses need to be reduced strategically by engaging farm gate/on-farm processing procedures/activities. The focus of this chapter is to explore the potential of renewable energy sources and formulate a way forward and policy for the comprehensive utilization of the country's existing potential for rural development.
