Empowerment and Tech Adoption: Introducing the Treadle Pump Triggers Farmers’ Innovation in Eastern Ethiopia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimelis Beyene ◽  
Teshome Regassa ◽  
Belaineh Legesse ◽  
Martha Mamo ◽  
Tsegaye Tadesse
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
External Support ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Eastern Ethiopia ◽  
Well Drilling ◽  
Irrigation Technology ◽  
Technology Introduction

In 2013, thirty-eight treadle pumps (TPs) were installed as low-cost technology introduction for small-scale irrigation in eastern Ethiopia. This pilot project also trained six farmers on tube well excavation, installation and maintenance of pumps. In June 2015, researchers visited nine of the 38 TP villages, and found only two functional TPs. The rest were replaced with a new technology developed by the trained farmers. Adopters of the new technology stated that the limited water output and high labor demand of the conventional TP did not optimally fulfil their irrigation water requirements. The new technology had spread quickly to more than one hundred households due to three key factors. First, farmers’ innovative modifications of the initial excavation technique addressed the discharge limitations of the conventional TP by excavating boreholes with wider diameter. Second, local ownership of the new technology, including skills used in well drilling and manufacturing excavation implement, made the new irrigation technology affordable and accessible to the majority of households. Third, this innovation spread organically without any external support, confirming its sustainability. Farmers, empowered by training, gained more control in developing technology options tailored to local needs and conditions of their communities.

scholarly journals Empowerment and Tech Adoption: Introducing the Treadle Pump Triggers Farmers’ Innovation in Eastern Ethiopia

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3268
Author(s):  
Shimelis Beyene ◽  
Teshome Regassa ◽  
Belaineh Legesse ◽  
Martha Mamo ◽  
Tsegaye Tadesse
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
External Support ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Eastern Ethiopia ◽  
Well Drilling ◽  
Irrigation Technology ◽  
Technology Introduction

In 2013, thirty-eight treadle pumps (TPs) were installed as low-cost technology introduction for small-scale irrigation in eastern Ethiopia. This pilot project also trained six farmers on tube well excavation, as well as the installation and maintenance of pumps. In June 2015, researchers visited nine of the thirty-eight TP villages and found only two TPs functioning as originally installed. The rest were replaced with a new technology developed by the trained farmers. Farmers, empowered by training, gained more control in developing technology options tailored to local needs and conditions of their communities. Adopters of the new technology stated that the limited water output and high labor demand of the conventional TP did not optimally fulfil their irrigation water requirements. The new technology had spread quickly to more than one hundred households due to three key factors. First, farmers’ innovative modifications of the initial excavation technique addressed the discharge limitations of the conventional TP by excavating boreholes with wider diameter. Second, local ownership of the new technology, including skills used in well drilling and manufacturing excavation implements, made the modified irrigation technology affordable and accessible to the majority of households. Third, this innovation spread organically without any external support, confirming its sustainability.

scholarly journals Empowerment and Tech Adoption: Introducing the Treadle Pump Triggers Farmers’ Innovation in Eastern Ethiopia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimelis Beyene ◽  
Teshome Regassa ◽  
Belaineh Legesse ◽  
Martha Mamo ◽  
Tsegaye Tadesse
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
External Support ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Eastern Ethiopia ◽  
Well Drilling ◽  
Community Ownership ◽  
Technology Introduction

In 2013, thirty-eight treadle pumps (TPs) were installed as low-cost technology introduction for small-scale irrigation in eastern Ethiopia. The pilot project also included training of selected farmers on well excavation, installation and maintenance of pumps. In June 2015, researchers visited nine of the 38 TP sites, and found only two functional TPs. The rest were replaced with a new technology. Farmers who adopted the new technology stated that the limited water output and high labor demand of the conventional TP did not optimally fulfil their irrigation water requirements. The new hybrid technologies have spread quickly to more than one hundred households due to three key factors. First, farmers’ innovative modifications of the initial excavation technique addressed the discharge limitations of the conventional TP by excavating boreholes with wider diameter. Second, community ownership of the new technology, including local skills used in well drilling and fabricating excavation implement, made the new irrigation technology affordable and accessible to a higher number of households, leading to faster diffusion of the technology. Third, this innovation has spread organically without any external support. Adoption of the new technology enabled some farmers to accumulate enough resources to diversify their livelihoods into non-farm activities.

scholarly journals Technical and Practical Valuation of Hydrokinetic Turbine Integration into Existing Canal Infrastructure in South Africa: A Case Study

Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 595
Author(s):  
Chantel Niebuhr ◽  
Marco van Dijk ◽  
Jay Bhagwan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
System Development ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Irrigation Canal ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbine ◽  
Northern Cape ◽  
Correct Application

Small-scale hydrokinetic (HK) energy systems is a renewable energy source which has never before been explored in South Africa, mainly due to the abundance of low-cost coal-powered electricity. A HK pilot project was implemented in an applicable section on the Boegoeberg irrigation canal in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and tested for optimum functionality and correct application. This paper describes the HK system development and evaluates the technical viability and resilience of the system. Furthermore, the sustainability of such an installation into existing infrastructure in a developing country is analyzed.

scholarly journals The Price of Sustainability of a Traditional Irrigation System in Northern Thailand

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1375
Author(s):  
Arriya Mungsunti ◽  
Kevin A. Parton
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Northern Thailand ◽  
Irrigation Technology ◽  
Water Pumping ◽  
Traditional Irrigation ◽  
Relevant Factors

In recent years in northern Thailand, the traditional surface-water irrigation system known as muang fai has been challenged by the introduction of small-scale, groundwater pumping technology. This trend presents concerns about the sustainability of the system, as the new technology uses more water but produces lower-quality agricultural outputs. In this paper, we provide evidence that farmers who use relatively modern irrigation technology (ground water pumping systems) are willing to switch to a more traditional (hundreds of years old) and more sustainable surface water irrigation system. In the Sop Rong region in northern Thailand, we surveyed 570 longan farmers, approximately half being muang fai members and half using pumped groundwater. We designed an experiment for the second group to check whether they were interested in becoming muang fai members in a scenario where they have access to the canal system. We found that almost half of them were willing to pay fees to become members and that the negative relationship between membership fees and the willingness to join is robust after controlling for all other relevant factors. Despite this positive result for sustainability, suggesting that there is a price at which many farmers would be willing to switch to a more water-saving system, few farmers are making the shift. We conclude that there are strong social pressures that discourage them from doing so. Such social influences are probably an important and often overlooked determinant of efforts to achieve sustainability.

Farmers' willingness to adopt irrigation for quinoa in communities of the Central Altiplano of Bolivia

2011 ◽  
pp. 7-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristal Taboada ◽  
Armando Mamani ◽  
Dirk Raes ◽  
Erik Mathijs ◽  
Magalí García ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deficit Irrigation ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Average Yield ◽  
Abiotic Conditions ◽  
Surplus Production ◽  
Irrigation Technology ◽  
Willingness To Adopt ◽  
Bolivian Altiplano ◽  
Main Factors

Quinoa is considered a strategic crop because it is well adapted to the adverse abiotic conditions of the Bolivian Altiplano; however, the average yield is low. Previous studies have demonstrated that quinoa yield would increase with deficit irrigation technology. Nevertheless, to irrigate quinoa is not a normal practice in the farming systems of the Altiplano. This paper examines the main factors that determine the attitude of farmers towards adopting deficit irrigation using a sample of 137 surveys in seven communities of the Central Altiplano. Statistic analysis demonstrates that the most important factors influencing farmers' willingness for irrigation adoption are the acreage planted with quinoa, quantity of surplus production for trading, and having irrigation experience. Also, the age and education level were important to know willingness to adopt a new technology. Therefore, deficit irrigation is more likely to be performed in area where farmers own larger fields and where there is already certain type of irrigation.

Tools of Transformation: Appropriate Technology in U.S. Countercultural Literature

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Peter Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Appropriate Technology ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Environmental Transformation ◽  
Buckminster Fuller ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Second Wave

This essay takes its cue from second-wave ecocriticism and from recent scholarly interest in the “appropriate technology” movement that evolved during the 1960s and 1970s in California and elsewhere. “Appropriate technology” (or AT) refers to a loosely-knit group of writers, engineers and designers active in the years around 1970, and more generally to the counterculture’s promotion, development and application of technologies that were small-scale, low-cost, user-friendly, human-empowering and environmentally sound. Focusing on two roughly contemporary but now largely forgotten American texts Sidney Goldfarb’s lyric poem “Solar-Heated-Rhombic-Dodecahedron” (1969) and Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip (1971)—I consider how “hip” literary writers contributed to eco-technological discourse and argue for the 1960s counterculture’s relevance to present-day ecological concerns. Goldfarb’s and Norman’s texts interest me because they conceptualize iconic 1960s technologies—especially the Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome and the Volkswagen van—not as inherently alienating machines but as tools of profound individual, social and environmental transformation. Synthesizing antimodernist back-to-nature desires with modernist enthusiasm for (certain kinds of) machinery, these texts adumbrate a humanity- and modernity-centered post-wilderness model of environmentalism that resonates with the dilemmas that we face in our increasingly resource-impoverished, rapidly warming and densely populated world.

scholarly journals Development of a simplified gas ultracleaning process: experiments in biomass residue-based fixed-bed gasification syngas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Frilund ◽  
Esa Kurkela ◽  
Ilkka Hiltunen
Keyword(s):  
Activated Carbons ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Fixed Bed ◽  
Carbonyl Sulfide ◽  
Gas Analysis ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Cleaning Process ◽  
Medium Temperature ◽  
Gas Cleaning ◽  
Adsorption Affinity

AbstractFor the realization of small-scale biomass-to-liquid (BTL) processes, low-cost syngas cleaning remains a major obstacle, and for this reason a simplified gas ultracleaning process is being developed. In this study, a low- to medium-temperature final gas cleaning process based on adsorption and organic solvent-free scrubbing methods was coupled to a pilot-scale staged fixed-bed gasification facility including hot filtration and catalytic reforming steps for extended duration gas cleaning tests for the generation of ultraclean syngas. The final gas cleaning process purified syngas from woody and agricultural biomass origin to a degree suitable for catalytic synthesis. The gas contained up to 3000 ppm of ammonia, 1300 ppm of benzene, 200 ppm of hydrogen sulfide, 10 ppm of carbonyl sulfide, and 5 ppm of hydrogen cyanide. Post-run characterization displayed that the accumulation of impurities on the Cu-based deoxygenation catalyst (TOS 105 h) did not occur, demonstrating that effective main impurity removal was achieved in the first two steps: acidic water scrubbing (AWC) and adsorption by activated carbons (AR). In the final test campaign, a comprehensive multipoint gas analysis confirmed that ammonia was fully removed by the scrubbing step, and benzene and H2S were fully removed by the subsequent activated carbon beds. The activated carbons achieved > 90% removal of up to 100 ppm of COS and 5 ppm of HCN in the syngas. These results provide insights into the adsorption affinity of activated carbons in a complex impurity matrix, which would be arduous to replicate in laboratory conditions.

scholarly journals A Framework for a New Approach to Empower Users Through Low-Cost and Do-It-Yourself Assistive Technology

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 3039
Author(s):  
Thais Pousada García ◽  
Jessica Garabal-Barbeira ◽  
Patricia Porto Trillo ◽  
Olalla Vilar Figueira ◽  
Cristina Novo Díaz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Do It Yourself ◽  
Principles Of Design

Background: Assistive Technology (AT) refers to “assistive products and related systems and services developed for people to maintain or improve functioning and thereby to promote well-being”. Improving the process of design and creation of assistive products is an important step towards strengthening AT provision. Purpose: (1) to present a framework for designing and creating Low-Cost AT; (2) to display the preliminary results and evidence derived from applying the framework. Methodology: First, an evidence-based process was applied to develop and conceptualize the framework. Then, a pilot project to validate the framework was carried out. The sample was formed by 11 people with disabilities. The measure instruments were specific questionnaire, several forms of the Matching Person-Technology model, the Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Device Scale, and a tool to assess the usability and universal design of AT. Results: The framework integrates three phases: Identification (Design), Creation (Making the prototype), and Implementation (Outcome Measures), based on the principles of Design Thinking, and with a user-centered perspective. The preliminary results showed the coherence of the entire process and its applicability. The matching between person and device was high, representing the importance of involving the user in the design and selection of AT. Conclusions: The framework is a guide for professionals and users to apply a Low-Cost and Do-It-Yourself perspective to the provision of AT. It highlights the importance of monitoring the entire procedure and measuring the effects, by applying the outcome measures.

scholarly journals Understanding Spatial Variability of NO2 in Urban Areas Using Spatial Modelling and Data Fusion Approaches

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Said Munir ◽  
Martin Mayfield ◽  
Daniel Coca
Keyword(s):  
Data Fusion ◽  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Dispersion Model ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Spatial Modelling ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The City

Small-scale spatial variability in NO2 concentrations is analysed with the help of pollution maps. Maps of NO2 estimated by the Airviro dispersion model and land use regression (LUR) model are fused with measured NO2 concentrations from low-cost sensors (LCS), reference sensors and diffusion tubes. In this study, geostatistical universal kriging was employed for fusing (integrating) model estimations with measured NO2 concentrations. The results showed that the data fusion approach was capable of estimating realistic NO2 concentration maps that inherited spatial patterns of the pollutant from the model estimations and adjusted the modelled values using the measured concentrations. Maps produced by the fusion of NO2-LCS with NO2-LUR produced better results, with r-value 0.96 and RMSE 9.09. Data fusion adds value to both measured and estimated concentrations: the measured data are improved by predicting spatiotemporal gaps, whereas the modelled data are improved by constraining them with observed data. Hotspots of NO2 were shown in the city centre, eastern parts of the city towards the motorway (M1) and on some major roads. Air quality standards were exceeded at several locations in Sheffield, where annual mean NO2 levels were higher than 40 µg/m3. Road traffic was considered to be the dominant emission source of NO2 in Sheffield.

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