| Project Type | Research Project |
| Project Sub-Type | Application |
| Project Status | Closed |
| Administrative Unit | ESARO |
| Regional Office Area | ESARO |
| Responsible Officer | Navarro, Luis |
| ODA Sector | Agricultural Inputs |
| Canadian Collaboration | No |
| | |
| Duration (months) | 24 |
| Extension (months) | 0 |
| Planned Completion Date | 1989/03/31 |
| Legal Close Date | 1993/03/31 |
| | |
| Total Funding | 27400 |
| | |
Abstract
Malawi's annual production of 80,000 tonnes of groundnuts comes from smallholder farmers. Manual shelling of groundnuts is time- and labour-consuming at a time of peak labour demand. Research to date has provided promising farm trial results with an inexpensive wooden sheller, which can be made locally and performs well on one groundnut variety. This project supports modification of the design to work on two other locally popular groundnut varieties to test the sheller on farms and to conduct durability trials over two harvest seasons. The resulting design should benefit many smallholder farmers who will receive a well-documented package of "how-to" information aimed at rural artisans and farm families. Selected rural artisans will be trained in the sheller's manufacture. A national plan for wider-scale dissemination of the shellers will be developed.
Post-Project Summary
Modifications to the sheller were achieved in terms of reduced kernel breakage and an increase in the technical efficiency of the sheller. Furthermore, construction cost of the sheller was lowered by replacing the sown timber of hardwood with Gmelina poles. The newly developed and improved groundnut sheller exceeded the performance target minimum of 90% whole kernel efficiency in on-station tests with all three varieties of groundnuts from Chalimbana, Chaitembana, and Mawanga. The shelling efficiency was also appreciably high.
Only limited on-farm field tests were conducted due to the lack of groundnuts from low crop yields resulting from adverse weather. However, participating farmers concurred that the sheller was very simple to operate and could lead to a saving in time and labour. Also, 90% of the farmers indicated willingness to own the sheller. In the study area of Chalimbana, a partial budget analysis showed that the groundnut sheller was a worthwhile investment even for the average farmer. Project researchers produced an "Instruction Manual for the Construction and Use of a Hand-Operated Wooden Groundnut Sheller".
Recipient Institution(s)
| Malawi. Ministry of Agriculture |
| Street Address | P.O. Box 30314 | Capital City, Lilongwe 3 | Malawi |
| Institution Type | Governmental |
| Geographic Scope | National |
| UN Organization | No |
| Component Number | 001 |
| Research Status | Closed |
| Institution Country | Malawi |
