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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Original Title Page -- Original Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables -- Dedication -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction -- Purpose and Scope of the Volume -- Organisation of the Volume -- The Setting of Rural Enterprises -- 2. Public Policy Overview of Agribusiness and Rural Enterprise Projects -- Fundamental Concepts -- The Role of Small- and Medium-Sized Rural Enterprises in a Developing Economy -- Selective Support for the Development of SMREs -- Problems Common to SMREs -- The Policy Framework -- Notes -- 3. Desingning Rural Enterprise Projects to Benefit the Poor -- Rural Economies and Planned Change -- Focusing Interventions on Employment Creation -- Focusing Project Activities on Enterprises Owned and Operated by the Rural Poor -- Focusing Projects to Enhance the Benefits of Backward Linkages to Small Farms -- Specific Types of Interventions -- Appropriate Technology -- Notes -- 4. Developing a Profile of an Agribusiness and Rural Enterprise System -- Sectoral Subgroupings -- Topics for the Sector Profile -- Data for an Agribusiness and Rural Enterprise Sector Profile -- Analytical Methods for an Agroindustrial and Rural Enterprise Profile -- Notes -- 5. Preliminary Analysis and Project Identification -- Tabular Presentation of Constraints by Subsector -- Selecting a Target Group -- Detailed Profiles of Families in the Target Group -- Detailed Profiles of Target Group Enterprises -- Notes -- 6. Examining Project Potential and Feasibility -- Accounting Methods for Analysis of Project Potential -- Estimating the Potential For Beneficial Impacts on Target Group Families -- A Checklist for Assessing Project Feasibility -- Institutional Capacity -- Financial Feasibility -- Estimating the Demand for the Proposed Intervention -- Analysis of Comparative Costs.

John Hollick, P.Eng, is the President of Conserval Engineering, a private company in Toronto with subsidiaries in Buffalo NY and Paris France. John is a Professional Engineer, an inventor, and a business person. His technology, SolarWall (SW) is one of the top 2% solar technology firms world-wide, as assessed by the US Government. It captures and makes conveniently available a very high proportion of solar radiation, over 90%, dwarfing the efficiency of photo voltaic panels (PV). The original technology is extremely sustainable requiring almost no maintenance, offering long term production with a life expectancy of several decades.Over the years, John has obtained several patents for his inventions, the last one awarded in December 2014. These patents reflect the continuous development of new technologies, new solutions built around the SW. Today SW offers solutions combining PV and thermal energy capture, or systems that may work to provide heating in the cold season and cooling in the warm season. All of the technologies are very cost effective.The case concerns possible agribusiness applications of one or more of the technology solutions developed by Conserval Engineering: the case users have been retained by John – thanks to their knowledge of agribusiness in their own country – to suggest possible applications of these technologies to local agribusiness industry. Mr Hollick has agreed to share a recent proposal (2010) to apply one of these technologies to solve the energy requirements of Food in Italy, while providing a significant carbon footprint reduction. He thinks that the analysis of this proposal and the material presented in the appendices will provide an opportunity to reflect on the potential of his technology and on the complex nature of the decision making process, and on some distortions resulting from public subsidies to some but not all sustainable technologies. That notwithstanding, the reflection on the first part of the case should reflect on the multiple gains that can be achieved with the adoption of these technologies in the specific local context.So, the case users armed with their reflections, their knowledge of agribusiness in their own country, and the short and essential description of the different technologies offered by Conserval Engineering, are asked to provide an illustration of what they consider the most promising applications to their own country's agribusiness industry. Yes, the case does not provide actual costs of the different technologies, other than for the proposal to Food in Italy. At the same time the case users can certainly provide a qualitative perspective, based on the fact that these are the most advanced and cost effective technologies in the solar thermal industry.Part 1 of the case will primarily be structured around the discussion of these practical application to the local agribusiness.* Part 2 will focus on business sdevelopment. In using the case in teaching, parts 1 and part 2 could be linked to two different days.