Re-Designing Africa's Ox-Powered Farm Tools
SUMMARY
Buying tractors or the fuel required to power them is far beyond the reach of most African small farmers. At the same time, they are tired from the energy draining attempt to raise their families bey
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jimelsworth said 2 years ago
This is a comendable idea. Marketing will be difficult and I suggest will need support for a long time. Please include Conservation Agriculture in your thinking. There is already an ox drawn ripper available, made by a private engineering company in Moshi, N Tanzania. Jim Elsworth
roosenberg said 2 years ago
Jim Elsworth,
We admire Conservation Farming, especially with rolling down cover crops and minimum tillage planting into the mulch. We are hesitant to advocate dependency on herbicides. And the ideal of cover crop roll down is dependent on a longer growing period in which a farmer can both grow a fast cover and then still have enough time to plant and mature a crop such as maize. That is a situation that is rare in semi-arid regions. But we nonetheless, need to work on solutions. At Tillers we would love to hear of potential solutions.