By Monika Goforth | Guatemala Programs Director
Wow! You guys are great. With just two GlobalGiving Matching Funds days we totally funded the designing and building of Solola's FIRST amaranth thresher and winnower!
"Winnower?" you ask. Yes! An amaranth winnower takes care of the finest and toughest job in amaranth production - the separating of the tiny seeds from the chaff, the thresher cuts the seed-bunch from the stalk.
In the last days of May, ATC Executive Director and appropriate technology genius, John Barrie, met with Dominga, the head of Mujeres Oxlajuj E Women's Amaranth Cooperative to discuss priority design needs. As we discussed threshing (separating seeds from stalk) vs. winnowing (separating chaff from seeds), Dominga explained that the winnowing of 1 acre of amaranth requires days of the most tedious work for farm women and children. So, apart from threshing, we need to prioritize designing a good winnower.
"What's so hard about designing an amaranth winnower?" you inquire. Because unlike larger grains like wheat and rice, the amaranth grain is so tiny that is blows off with the chaff, losing a lot of product! So ATC engineers are designing a special winnower to sift these fine little superfood grains by mimicking the by-hand sifting process.
Calvin College has been sharing their research in amaranth threshing with ATC. We'll be adapting the design below to fit with locally available materials and adding on an improved winnowing mechanism.
So, by harvest season in November, we will have:
- worked with local engineers and designers to adapt the thresher/winnower designs for the local context
- built the first machine to be located at the cooperative center
- tested and fine-tuned this first machine for improvement
...and that's just the beginning...
We've have upped our budget to keep this amazing project progressing as the new winnowing design is going to need lots of follow-up and tune ups over the harvest season. Our goal is to have a finalized working design by next summer, so we can build a second machine to provide more access to more farmers.
Here we go, ATC, creating Opportunity by Design.
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