surveys in several ldcs suggest that solar lighting leads to significant reductions in lighting spending lower c emissions health benefits especially for women and children who typically spend more time indoors and educational improvements by allowing longer or more flexible study time grimm et al they can also make some contribution to productive use for example by allowing smallholder farmers to use icts thereby improving access to market information agricultural extension and basic financial services unctad b bhatia and angelou prior to electrification renewable energy can be harnessed directly to diversify income sources and enhance labour productivity in nonfarming activities and food processing through nonelectrical technologies such as solar tunnels for drying and evaporative refrigerators while the takeup of similar devices would likely be constrained by the availability of funds for enduse investments ldcs producers including small and mediumsized enterprises smes might benefit significantly from harnessing the scope for technological adaptation and frugal innovations in the field of enduse productive technologies including those compatible with offgrid systems prahalad