+ All Categories
Home > Documents > Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for...

Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for...

Date post: 27-Jun-2020
Category:
Upload: others
View: 2 times
Download: 0 times
Share this document with a friend
17
Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders Case Study: Teff Row Planter 12/6/16
Transcript
Page 1: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Case Study: Teff Row Planter

1 2 / 6 / 1 6

Page 2: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Agenda

1. Situation

2. Approach

3. What we did

4. Challenges and way forward

5. Discussion

Page 3: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Situation: row planting and teff

• Row planting delivers significant yield increases

• GoE recommends a four-step process known as TIRR:

1. Make furrows 20cm apart

2. Apply fertilizer in furrow with hands

3. Apply seed in furrow using highland bottle

4. Cover seed and fertilizer with furrow-side soil

Page 4: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Situation: row planting and teff

• But, method is difficult and labor intensive

Page 5: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Situation: many prototypes

Page 6: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Situation: many prototypes

Page 7: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Situation: many prototypes, a few issues

One Acre Fund assessed 12+ prototypes available in Ethiopia (and one in Europe):

• Most are very expensive for smallholders (ETB 5000 to 12,000 euros)

• Most are not quite functional

• Many are too large and heavy to be transported easily between fields, making sharing difficult

• Manufacturing capacity for mechanical items is limited in Ethiopia

• Multiple spouts for multiple rows mean furrows must be perfectly spaced

All have failed to be adopted by farmers.

Page 8: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Our Approach: Human-Centered Design

Empathy

Tons of ideas

Lots of prototypes

Sharing prototypes with

customer

Innovative new solution

that works for customer

What is human-centered design?

It’s a process that starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor-made to suit their needs.

It’s all about empathy and letting the customer drive the design.

Many failures

Page 9: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Our Approach: Human-Centered Design

Page 10: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Our Approach: Human-Centered Design

Page 11: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

What we did: Teff Row Planter

In 2015, we started working on this:

Hired a former bike-parts engineer

Spent a lot of time with teff

farmers

Bought, rented, or borrowed RP

prototypes

Gathered farmer opinions on prototypes

Assessed attributes & farmer ideas

Gave engineer a temporary workshop

Rapidly developed 100

prototypes

Tested prototypes with

staff

Tested prototypes with

farmers

Assembled 150 of the two that farmers liked

most

Distributed 150 planters to farmers for

planting

Observed, interviewed and

discussed w/ farmers

Refined and redesigned

planters

Tested improved prototypes with

farmers

Refined and redesigned

Rented a real assembly space

(2016)

Produced 5000 planters

(2016)

RCT with 5000 farmers

(2016)

Page 12: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

What we did: Teff Row Planter

Affordable – farmers are price sensitive. We hope to sell for < 200 birr

No wheels – wheels make black soil planting difficult

Easy to use – mechanics are not available in many kebeles

Lightweight – often kids and women do teff planting

One spout – furrows are rarely the same distance apart

5 kg seed rate – farmers want the higher-end of the gov’t rec

Locally produced – assembled in Bahir Dar and made from ten components, four of which are imported.

Page 13: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

What we did: Randomized Control Trial

4000 Crank units

1000 Pour units

Black soils: 5 kebeles x 500 farmers (2500 farmers total)

Red soils: 5 kebeles x 500 farmers (2500 farmers total)

Survey: 403 participants and 907 control farmers

Page 14: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

What we did: Randomized Control Trial

Planters increased adoption of row planting by 14 percentage points

• Row planter makes row planting more comfortable

• Row planter is more precise than highland bottle so promises better yields

• People were excited to try a new technology

31% of farmers who took row planters home, used them

• Rains came early, reducing planting window and further constraining labor

Red soil adoption of planters was ~25% higher than black soil

• Heavy rains this year made it nearly impossible to walk in black soils

Page 15: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Way forward: addressing challenges

• Focus more on red soils

• Heavier marketing and promotionBlack soil adoption is

somewhat low

• Adoption survey + focus group discussions

• Sales trial in 2017 with 7000+ plantersPricing and demand

estimation

• Creating multi-row prototypes nowFarmers have to walk

40-50 km to plant 1 ha

• Redesigning and sourcing better crank piece

Crank can fall off after heavy use

• Trialing pre-plowing broadcast application of fertilizer

Fertilizer application still time-consuming

Other ideas???

Page 16: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Other questions, comments or ideas?

Page 17: Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholderssmis-ethiopia.org/.../12/...Appropriate-Technology-for-Smallholders-1.… · Developing Appropriate Farm Technology for Smallholders

Thank you!


Recommended