agriculture

Wheat Thresher

[facilitating higher yield of wheat through automatic threshing]

[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 thresh (beat the cut plant until the seed is loosened) in rural locations. Currently, Basotho people harvest wheat, have their cattle walk on it until the seed is loosened, and then use the wind to separate the wheat from the chaff. Such a process in inefficientg, as much of the grain is lost in the threshing process. In the northeastern region of Mokhotlong, such losses are not easily affordable as the growing season is extremely short (October till February), and maximum crop yield is required for survival. [top]
Community	This technology would be marketed to farmers, especially those in the Mokhotlong region who traditionally sow wheat. [top]
Specifications	Manual (Not electric) Must be movable using draft (animal) power Requires less labor than alternate means of crushing wheat Improves yield of grain as compared with traditional threshing [top]
Issues	Help is needed in the following areas: Designing wheat threshing machine. [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 wheat thresher. 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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