agriculture

Ox-Drawn Planter Educational Campaign

[educating the people about how to correctly use a multicrop planter]

[Summary & Motivation] [Community] [Specifications] [Issues] [Contacts] [Documents]

Summary & Motivation	Project Initiator: ATS Start Date: 2004 Projected Completion Date: Not applicable Current Status: Collaboration with other agencies to develop materials In recent years, many Basotho farmers bought an ox-drawn planter from South African manufacturer Millibrand. These ZAR 2,200 (About $400) had a significant flaw in the construction which prevented them from properly dropping the seed in the hole. A technician who received many requests to help fix the planter finally realized that the problem was in the way that the meshing gears had been cast. Basically, the spacing between the teeth was not uniform, so teeth would slip rather than grab as the gears rotated. The Ministry of Agriculture then asked for ATS to get involved in the project, and village meetings with the manufacturer were held. While the manufacturer did replace all the poorly cast gears, ATS engineers realized that the villagers lacked th knowledge to properly use the machine. Since the manufacturer does not produce good information, ATS has taken it upon itself to develop a proper training manual and class for the rural farmers. [top]
Community	This training would be given to farmers who are using the crop planters. [top]
Specifications	Easy to understand Illustrated In English and Sesotho [top]
Issues	Help is needed in the following areas: Developing training program for planting process. [top]
Contacts	Project Leader: Kopano Tsenoli MIT Contact: Not available (If interested, please email mit_ats@MIT.edu) ATS Contact: Kopano Tsenoli <ktsenoli@hotmail.com> Website (If applicable):   [top]
Documents	DOCUMENTS Description (Name) [Date] Download Small-Scale Agricultural Implements Needs Assessment Contains contact for planter repair training. Documents [top]

*.pdf - Portable Document File / *.doc - Document (Microsoft Word) / *.jpg - Joint Photographic Experts Group (Browser) / *.zip - WinZip Compressed File (WinZip)

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