Innovation In The Village

Simply, work in the village is hard. My neighbors, and in truth my co-workers, work for everything they get. They sweat and pour effort into making ends meet, which means keeping poverty at bay for a little bit longer.

It’s something I see every day and at times it can really wear me down. Instead of succumbing to my surroundings through apathy or frustration, I’ve decided to try to bring some innovation to the village and work with those around me to make their lives a little easier.

My flagship project in this effort is an old bicycle that’s been made into a plow for use in cultivating and weeding farmers’ fields and gardens. These two activities are both time consuming and overwhelmingly labor intensive. At some point a strong back and an even stronger resolve are necessary, and even that is eroded away by long, labor-intensive hours in the fields.

This is the first bike plow that we designed.  It wasn't real great, but it was a good start.  It was built for the man on the right, Mr. Sandonji.  He is nearly 80 years old and was having a hard time cultivating his field.

My hope is that the bike plow will gain some traction and start to be adopted by those I work with.

The plow is just a step up from a hoe or shovel, so it’s a simple machine and can be easily understood. I’m not trying to revolutionize farming, just make it simpler.

With the back wheel still attached, the bike frame is overturned and the seat’s replaced with a locally built digging plow or weeding blade. The handlebars are inverted and the user then pushes the plow and goes about their work.

The new bike plow, shown here, is much better than the first.  I took it this day to show and allow my students at Kalende Mission College to use.

I wish I could take credit completely for the idea, but I can’t. Another volunteer passed on the initial idea to me, and I then worked with a Canadian Missionary in my area to build a prototype.

Once we had a design I showed it to 10 farmers for their input, and since then it has been an ongoing cycle of redesigning, retesting and rebuilding. Each model is getting better, and each time we’re growing more confident, more excited that we’re on the right track.

For now, the model we’re using is saving some farmers up to 75 percent on their time in the fields and a large amount in effort, as well as lower back pain.

To gain more insight into improved designs and to drum up interest in the project, I’ve been traveling around with a few farmers to different areas and villages throughout Mufumbwe District to hold demonstrations with the plow.

The demonstrations are pretty informal and laid back. The bike plow is placed out front of the assembled group, and they’re all encouraged to use it in working the land for a few minutes. After everyone has a chance, the request comes for suggestions and design improvements.

Most demonstrations are hands-on.  I like people to use the plow, discuss it, and provide feedback.

And to be honest, for as decent of an initial design as mine was, these farmers have come up with some amazing ideas, the kind that blow mine out of the water. I’m really excited for this project because it’s starting to blossom into something more.

Some of the people I’m working with are not just trying to build their own bicycle plows or give constructive criticism of mine, they’re also looking at other tools and tasks in their daily lives and asking themselves how they too could be improved.

Even if the bike plow turns out to be nothing more than a good idea that never quite worked, I’ll consider it a success if the people that saw it take what they learned at the demonstration, apply it to another item and improve their livelihoods through innovation.

On this day the bike plow was used to make small ridges in four hours in a 50 meter by 50 meter field of peanuts.  To do this by hand can take days and days of manual labor.  The ridges are used to prevent drowning a plant in the field during rainy season.

I doubt innovation of machines will solve all of my community’s problems, but it can’t hurt.

So much of life here is affected by cultural norms and government policy that those seem to have the most sweeping impact. But if life can be made simpler through a bike plow for a handful of farmers, then I’m all for it and I’ll happily check that project off as a success on my list.

All because of a little bit of village innovation.