ICRISAT’s strategy of inclusive market-oriented development (IMOD) was in motion during a recent visit by a team from ICRISAT-Lilongwe and the Eastern Province Farmers’ Cooperative Ltd (EPFC) to Kabunda village to solicit farmers’ opinion on a groundnut shelling machine.

1. Shelling groundnuts made easier
A woman farmer in Chipata, Zambia, tries out the new groundnut sheller.
IMOD is a dynamic progression from subsistence to market-oriented agriculture. It starts by
increasing the production of crops, and converting deficits into marketable surpluses that are sold
into markets. This strategy enables the poor, particularly women and the youth, to participate,
rather than be sidelined in the development process.
ICRISAT’s strategy of inclusive market-oriented development (IMOD) was in motion during a recent
visit by a team from ICRISAT-Lilongwe and the Eastern Province Farmers’ Cooperative Ltd (EPFC) to
Kabunda village to solicit farmers’ opinion on a groundnut shelling machine.
The activity was conducted under the new Feed the Future project in Zambia. ICRISAT-Lilongwe was
the source of the MGV4 (CG-7) basic seed converted into certified seed in villages such as Kabunda
through a partnership with EPFC. EPFC provides farmers with training on seed production, increases
the number of farmers producing seed through a seed loan system, and also buys back the
groundnut certified seed produced by the smallholder farmers.
A groundnut farmer’s work doesn’t stop at harvest. At the end of a growing season, the nuts must
be stripped or separated from the stalks. Then they must be gathered into sacks or stored in a
granary before farmers can begin the next laborious task of shelling.
This last season, groundnut farmers Gift Lungu and his wife Jessie managed to produce 200 bags of
unshelled groundnuts on their farm in Chipata District, in the Eastern Province of Zambia. Two
hundred bags of unshelled groundnuts weigh around 3800 kg. “Shelling this amount takes us around
2 months or so on and off,” Jessie says. They hire laborers or women’s groups trying to earn some
cash to help them shell.
Paying for extra labor cuts into the profit that the Lungus earn from their groundnuts. Shelling their
entire harvest costs them US$ 240 or around 8% of their possible income from groundnut sales.
Shelling groundnuts by hand is not just time-intensive; the repeated motion also causes scrapes on
fingers. To make the task easier, farmers and laborers regularly wet the groundnuts, which in turn
results in increased aflatoxin levels.
During the ICRISAT team’s visit to Kabunda village, farmers provided some of their harvest to be
shelled and then each took a turn at the machine to try it out. Women in particular were given a
chance to test the sheller and voice their opinions. The team took part in a 10-minute competition
to determine the difference in speed between man and machine. In 10 minutes farmers managed to
shell around 1 kg of groundnuts as compared to 8.5 kg by the machine.
The problem with the machine is the higher rate of breakage of the nuts. However, most farmers
claimed that they were willing to use the machine and that the rate of loss in broken nuts was more
than compensated for by the increase in speed of shelling. The discussions after the demonstrations
revolved around finding ways for farmers to buy the shelling machine, the issue of maintaining and
repairing it, as well as innovative ways to share it with others.
ICRISAT Happenings http://www.icrisat.org/newsroom/latest-news/happenings/happenings1526.htm#1
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