Groundnut shelling machines for increased productivity in Mali

Dr Ayoni Ogunbayo, Country Project Manager, Mali, presents a shelling machine to Mrs Mariam Coulibaly.

A view of the machines offered to partners. Photos: Dieudonné Diama, ICRISAT

Increasing productivity and incomes of smallholder groundnut farmers is the goal of the project, Increasing Groundnut Productivity of Smallholder Farmers in Ghana, Mali and Nigeria. One of the ways to achieve this is to cut post-harvest costs associated with groundnut shelling. With this in view, 25 motorized shelling machines were distributed to groundnut farmers at Samanko, Mali on 22 March 2019. The machines are also expected to reduce drudgery and high labor costs associated with shelling.

“Manual shelling of groundnut leads to sore thumbs, and we experience losses of 100–150 kg/ha seed,” says Mrs Mariam Coulibaly, President, Association of Women’s Groundnut Seed Production in Wacoro, Mali. “The availability of the machine has prompted us to increase groundnut production from 120 hectares to 200 hectares,” she stated.

Dr Aboubacar Touré, Sorghum Breeder, ICRISAT, acting on behalf of Dr Ramadjita Tabo, Research Program Director, West and Central Africa, ICRISAT, informed the partners that the machine was meant for entire community involved in groundnut seed production.

This work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goal.