Ox-drawn ploughs still power farming in much of the country, meaning agricultural output of rice, beans and other staples could grow immensely through mechanization.

CNN: From Burma to Myanmar: Land of rising expectations

This not only can aid farming but also feed power to nearby villages.

FORBES: Pakistan: Harnessing Sun, Water And Fossil Fuel

Matching that power output with corn ethanol would require intensive farming on more than 21, 000 square miles, an area nearly the size of West Virginia.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Nigeria could funnel its oil revenues into a more efficient financial system that could provide capital to the private sector to build roads and power stations and expand private enterprises, such as farming.

ECONOMIST: Nigeria's prospects

But what we really need is big, new ideas: new ways to distribute and store energy for electric power, new ways to conserve and distribute clean water for farming and gulping, and new ways get ourselves and our cargo around, so that we don't change the Earth's climates too much as we burn our fossil fuels.

CNN: 'The Science Guy' says: 'Save the Earth'

Only by improving the productivity of farming could we raise our standard of living and emerge as an industrial power.

NEWYORKER: Testing, Testing

Farming subsidies are continually under threat, but when the federal government started subsidising ethanol production and wind power, farmers realised that renewable energy offers new streams of revenue.

ECONOMIST: Doing it their way

Raised by a family of successful farming entrepreneurs, Jose understands by way of practical experience how growing a business to scale has the power to transform families and communities.

FORBES: Jose Corona of Inner City Advisors on Inner City Sustainability and Job Creation

Alternative livelihoods such as ecotourism and fish farming could provide an alternative to intensive crop farming, while better management of crops and irrigation and the adoption of alternative energy sources such as solar power would all contribute to environmental sustainability.

CNN: Growing deserts 'a global problem'