Innovative Postharvest Tools for Agripreneurs

We adapt and procure postharvest technology packages for small-scale agribusinesses across sub-Saharan Africa. Our tools help small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs grow, transition into profitable enterprises, and realize their business potential.

Our Current Portfolio of Tools

Multi-Crop Ewing Grinder

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Peanut Processing Tools

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Multi-Crop Ewing Grinder

Bountifield’s Ewing Multi-Crop Grinder is a multi-functional burr mill technology that can be used to produce a variety of value-added products like flour from grain or a creamy paste from roasted nuts. The multi-crop grinder is designed to be either hand-operated or motorized, making it compatible to the needs and resources of the end-user.

Technologies such as this opens new opportunities to pursue microenterprises. Alternative enterprise opportunities are incredibly valuable, allowing families to gain an income, empowering women to participate in economic life, and contributing to food security by increasing local food production. Our grinders help to:

  • Reduce the drudgery and time associated with traditional processing methods
  • Produce high-quality, value-added products
  • Cultivates opportunities for microenterprises
  • Lead to richer participation of women in the economic sphere
  • Strengthen food security through increased incomes and production

Our high-quality grinders are equipped with heat-treated burrs that never require sharpening and withstand long-term wear, making the need for replacements a rarity. They were designed to be assembled in minutes and can be cleaned as equally fast. Bountifield's multi-crop grinder helps communities improve nutrition by producing a variety of high-nutrient, value-added products, ranging from cocoa butter to maize and millet blended flours that improves the quality of diets.

Key Figures - Ewing Grinder

MORE EFFICIENT 

x

faster than traditional methods.

GAME CHANGING

%

of grinder users are women.

BIG IMPACT

K

people impacted in 50 countries.

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Peanut Processing Tools

Our suite of mechanized groundnut processing technologies are designed to increase small farmers’ productivity, improve the quality of peanut harvests, and reduce labor.

Using the tools, a farmer can harvest, strip, and shell a hectare of groundnuts in just 12 days — more than 8 times faster than traditional labor methods! The tools were designed to be rugged, affordable, and easy to operate.

The suite of devices harvest peanuts, strip pods from the roots, and shell whole nuts.

The lifter, stripper, and sheller were designed by a team of engineers and researchers from Bountifield|CTI and ICRISAT, in collaboration with smallholders from Malawi and Tanzania. The tools were extensively field-tested throughout the peanut producing belt of Malawi from 2011 to 2014 and modified based on feedback from farmers.

With support from the McKnight Foundation, Bountifield is working with local manufacturers to produce the tools in Malawi. We are piloting the technologies with farmer organizations across Malawi, including NASFAM, the largest smallholder farmer group in the country. Farmer groups like NASFAM give smallholder farmers access to resources like new technologies, training, and good seed. With this partnership, farmer organizations can now offer Bountifield's peanut tools to their members, giving farmers access to the support necessary to reap the full benefits of their labor.

Key Figures - Peanut Tool Suite

FASTER

%
labor time savings during groundnut shelling versus current labor-intensive practices.

WIDE IMPACT

lives improved in communities using our peanut tools.

INCOME GENERATING

$/yr
can be made by farmers renting out their tools to others in their communities.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

year
return on investment for farmers providing peanut stripping services to others in their community.

Peanut Lifter

Farmers traditionally harvest peanuts by digging with a hand-hoe and manually lifting the plants from the ground. Bountifield’s lifter consists of a frame with a blade that sinks below the ground’s surface to cut the roots of the groundnut vines, loosen the soil as it is pulled forward by an oxen or small tractor. On the back of the blade, steel rods shake off excess soil and lift the plant away from the ground. The lifter can be adjusted to accommodate the heights of different users.

Peanut Stripper

After harvest, farmers traditionally spend several days tediously hand plucking groundnut pods from the plants one by one. Bountifield’s stripper is comprised of an A-shaped frame covered with a woven metal screen, similar to chain link fencing.

To operate the stripper, the user simply drags a groundnut plant across screen, putting pressure on the pods with one hand which allows the metal to snag the groundnut pods away from the plant and drops through the screen to the ground or over a tarp.

Peanut Sheller

Typically, groundnuts are shelled by hand, most often by women. Farmers commonly wet their pods to soften their shells, causing considerable risk of contamination from bacteria, fungus, and aflatoxin. Bountifield’s sheller is a hand-operated device that scrapes groundnut pods between a rotating disk and stationary steel rods. The gap between the disk and rods narrows as the nuts fall down the sheller, and the nuts are easily shelled with minimal broken or split kernels.