intermediate technology, simple and practical tools, basic machines, and engineering systems that economically disadvantaged farmers and other rural people can purchase or construct from resources that are available locally to improve their well-being. Designed to focus on people rather than machines, intermediate technology is considered to be more harmonious with the environment and with traditional ways of life. German-born British economist E.F. Schumacher first conceived of the concept after a visit to Burma (now Myanmar) in 1955. He concluded that poor countries might realize progress in productivity by adopting advanced technologies but that those advances would do little to increase