agriculture

Ox-Drawn Spreader

[effectively distributes manure or lime on crops using animal power]

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

Summary & Motivation	Project Initiator: Mike Kelly, from GROW Start Date: August, 2004 Projected Completion Date: Not applicable Current Status: Ideas stage As a volunteer with the agency GROW, Mike Kelly approached ATS about the idea of developing a way to spread manure, lime, or other products among the crops using animal power. Since maize has been grown for generations in Lesotho as a monoculture, acidity of the soil tends to be a problem. The government freely distributed lime to neutralize the soil, but the work required to spread the lime over even small fields caused many villagers to missuse the lime. Other farmers have large stocks of animal waste which could be used to as manure to add nutrients to the soil, but they lack an adequate way of getting the manure evenly spread among the crops. Since the majority of Basotho are subsistence farmers, any implement which would help improve soil productivity would be extremely useful. [top]
Community	This technology would be marketed to farmers, especially those who have traditionally practiced monocultural planting. [top]
Specifications	Pulled by oxen Can be used for spreading several different substances Affordable for the rural farmer Educates rural farmer about need for crop rotation [top]
Issues	Help is needed in the following areas: Designing ox-drawn spreader. Developing educational material to educate about importance of crop rotation Researching existing products being marketed at draft animal center in S. Africa and in Brazil. [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 ox-drawn spreader. 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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