An Overview Of Our Solution
A mechanical, organic, and manually-powered machine that is used to kill and remove insect pests from stored agricultural products such as rice, corn, soybean, and other dry, hard staple crops. This machine is easy to operate and maintain, and affordable for small-scale and medium-scale farms, as well as for farmer cooperatives.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Suburban
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Asia
General Information
Organization type
individual
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Grasslands
Population impacted
100 Million Filipinos
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
1 ha
Production quantity
10000 kilos
People employed
4 people
Solution
Describe your solution
Since the machine is low-cost (especially compared to chemical methods), easy to operate and maintain, and can be used even in the most rural areas, this machine can be very useful to farmers everywhere in the Philippines. It does not use chemicals to kill the pests, but rather, heated air, which is heated using LPG (which is readily accessible in almost all parts of the Philippines) and a stove top burner. Thus, the emissions from using the machine is just the same as the emissions while cooking on a stove.
I've called the idea behind this machine the M.O.M. principle, which stands for Mechanical, Organic, Manual.
Mechanical - The machine runs by a series of gears and chains, with no digital or electric components, making it cheap to produce, easy to operate, and easy to maintain.
Organic - No chemicals are used to kill or separate the pests from the produce. As mentioned earlier, only heated air is applied to the produce, which kills the insects in all their life stages, and works on both internal and external feeders.
Manual - The machine is powered by bike pedals (recycled from an old bicycle), so even a farmer who is past his prime age can power this machine, saving him money and increasing the amount and quality of stored produce.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
In terms of implementation, I can break down the effects of the machine into five specific key areas:
1. Affordability - A single machine costs only $1000, which is a huge savings for any farming cooperative or business that choses to purchase a machine. A single cooperative can even purchase a machine and charge their farmers a nominal fee to use this machine, thereby allowing them to recoup their costs more quickly.
2. Durability and Maintenance - A machine will last 15-20 years with minimal maintenance and repairs, and can be cleaned easily with a stiff wire brush to remove debris inside.
3. Operation - The operation of the machine requires two people: one to pedal the machine, and another to feed the infested produce into the machine and monitor the temperature, increasing or decreasing the feed of LPG as needed.
4. Environmental Impact - Since the machine does not use any chemicals, it will not affect non-target organisms, nor will these be any residue in the surrounding air or water.
5. Social Impact - Cooperatives and farming businesses will reduce, if not completely eliminate, their dependence on chemical control methods, and become more aware of the existence of alternative pest control solutions.
At present, my team and I were able to present the machine to some local cooperatives, and get them interested in knowing more about alternative pest control solutions like this machine. They are also interested in purchasing the machine once we move into mass production. They also learned more about the dangers of being too dependent on chemical pest control, and how using this machine can help them financially.
The biggest obstacle we had to overcome was the reluctance of some farming groups to reduce their usage of pesticides, however, upon watching the demonstration of the machine and presenting our laboratory data to them, they are now more open to using alternative pest control methods.
External connections
As one of the winners of the YAP program, I was given seed funding by the Agropolis Fondation, based in France. I am also receiving mentoring and business planning guidance under YPARD (Young Professionals for Agricultural Development).
At present, I am also trying to get an endorsement from the Department of Agriculture here in the Philippines, so that more people could hear about my project.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
In urbanized areas, a single medium-sized storage warehouse can spend anywhere from $5000- $7000 per year on chemical pest control. Aside from being expensive, this poses two other problems.
First, there is the problem of chemical residue left behind. When storehouses and warehouses are cleaned, the water runoff contains these chemicals.
Second, continuous use of chemicals to control insect pests leads to pesticide resistance buildup, which means that over time, these warehouses must now increase either the dose or toxicity of the insecticide to control the resistant population.
It becomes a vicious cycle, and one I hope to break by offering a machine that works on the major pests of stored products (weevils and beetles).
Describe the context in which you are operating
The Philippines loses 3 million tons of rice to stored pest damage every year. It also loses around the same amount of maize, and a third of the amount of legumes. While larger farms and wealthy cooperatives can afford chemical pest control, more rural areas, small-scale farms, and rural cooperatives that cannot afford chemical pest control must either live with the damaged goods (and reduced profit), or find ways to kill the pests, such as manual sieving, drying the produce on highways to reduce moisture content, or other low-cost methods.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
The biggest positive impact that this machine will have is to reduce the reliance of farmer cooperatives and warehouses on chemicals to control post-harvest and storage pests. Since the pests are killed by non-chemical means, the instance of toxic residue and pesticide resistance buildup is reduced. What's more, non-target organisms are not affected by this method of pest control.
During our lab tests, we have found that we are able to process 10 kilos of infested grain in under 2 minutes, completely killing and removing the pests from these grains. We were able to test on pest-infested rice, maize, and soybean. In an hour, around 600 kilos of infested produce can be processed. Since the process is continuous feeding of the grains, there would be no problems with having to load and remove the produce.
Language(s)
English, Filipino
Water
Water systems around farms, cooperatives, and warehouses will be safe from toxic residue washout.
Food Security/Nutrition
Staple food crops such as rice, maize, and legumes are the main produce protected by this machine, so using this machine increases quality and quantity, and helps reduce toxic residue from chemical use.
Economic/Sustainable Development
Farms and cooperatives that purchase this machine will reduce their pest control costs in the long-run, since they will not purchase chemicals, and operating and maintaining this machine has minimal costs.
Climate
Using this machine lessens the carbon emissions since it does not use any chemicals in the killing or removal of the pests from the produce.
Sustainability
At present, my team and I are relying on the grant funding from Agropolis Fondation, which gave us the seed money needed to design and produce the final working prototype. As we scale into production, we are looking for either partners in the Philippines (private investors) or government subsidies that will help us mass-produce this machine according to orders from farmers, cooperatives, or warehouse owners.
In the future, we predict that the business will becoming sustainable based on market revenue, since the machine is affordable,and there is a need in both the local and global market for this machine. We are hoping to be able to produce and sell this market in both the national and international market in the future.
Return on investment
Chemical control can cost anywhere from $5000- $7000, or even more, depending on the size of the warehouse, the number of times spraying or fumigation is required, and other factors such as prices of chemicals.
A single machine will only cost around $1000. The only cost will be the purchasing of LPG tanks, which is as little as $10/ 10 kg tank. It will only take an hour to process 600 kilos of grain, and only around 1-2kg of LPG, so 600 kilos will only cost $1-3 to process.
For larger companies, farms, and corporations, we are creating a design that will allow the machine to be powered by electricity, which can then process thousands of tons of produce in an hour.
Entrant Image
Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
The machine is very simple to make, and it uses treated metal so that it does not rust or break easily. Basically, anywhere with a welding shop can replicate this machine because the design is very simple. A single machine costs around $1000 to produce and transport.
Very little training is required for farmers and business owners to operate this machine, since you basically just have to light the burner, load the machine continuously, and have someone pedal the machine. Since it does not use any fuel or any digital parts, the clean up is also very simple: simply brush the insides to remove any remaining debris from the processing and to ensure that the perforations in the body of the machine are not clogged.
Keystake holders required in an area would be heads of farming cooperatives that deal with staple crops, as well as warehouse and storehouse owners.