IntechOpen Contemporary Rural Development Programs (Sustainable Development)

Rural development involves strategies designed to improve the socioeconomic, political and environmental life of people living outside urbanized areas. It is intended to improve the well-being of rural communities by expanding their access to basic services like education, healthcare, employment opportunities, agricultural extension services, electricity, micro-credit, and infrastructural services, including feeder roads and sanitation facilities. In this light, this book presents cases that demonstrate challenges to rural development, culture and development, and technology and food production in rural areas. The book includes contributions from leading researchers and scholars in the field of rural development from different countries, including the USA, Colombia, Mozambique, Japan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Cameroon, Sudan, and Japan. Based on empirical research, this book discusses a variety of topics, including longitudinal health sciences mentorship program for rural schools in Washington State, USA; demographic dividend and challenges for rural development in Cameroon; igniting cultural heritage tourism as potential to rural development in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; assessing Japan’s urban to rural migration program; enhancing food security through fisheries in rural Zimbabwe; assessing biogas technology implementation as a vehicle for rural development in Limpopo, South Africa; smart rural communities action research in Colombia and Mozambique; and evaluating selected agricultural extension approaches in rural Sudan. The book is insightful, thought-provoking, and easy to understand. It could serve as an essential reference material on contemporary rural development programs.