Bicycle-Powered Machines

Posted on Wed Apr 23 2008

By: Sarah Nelson in Environment

Comments: 3

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This funny-looking device is a human-powered machine used by coffee farmers in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. It's a depulper its function being to remove the outer husk from fresh coffee beans so that the inner bean can be dried and roasted. It has been made from a modified bicycle.

Since green coffee beans have to be sold during a brief window of time (lest they rot), which gives the buyers a clear advantage having a depulper means that farmers can obtain a better price for their beans, as they can be dried, farmers are no longer limited to selling them while they are green.

Bicycles in Chimaltenengo are not just for riding anymore, although there are still plenty of those around town as well. Maya Pedal produces a wide variety of machines to help with agricultural and household chores; powered by nothing more than cranks, chains, and human legs. This is a very simple concept, easy and inexpensive to carry out, that is helping Guatemalan farmers increase production without depending on oil or other fossil fuels. In many cases farmers are also able to convert completely to an organic mode of production.

The project that is now called Maya Pedal was started by PEDAL, in Vancouver, who handed most of the responsibility over to local organizations in 2001. They use donated bicycles that are shipped from organizations in the U.S. and add steel, concrete, old tires, used car parts, wood and rope as needed to transform the bicycles into productive, environmentally friendly tools.

Each machine goes through a prototype stage where it is tested (at no charge) by several groups. Many of the machines are then modified according to suggestions they make. After the testing, they are sold at subsidized prices to the community groups, and at full price to individuals. Although exceptions are sometimes made for those people in financial need who would greatly benefit from using on of them.

Since the average cyclist can produce 1/8 to 1/4 horsepower, which is much more efficient than working by hand, farmers who have started using these modified bicycle machines report at least a five-fold improvement in production.

The machines that are currently available include macadamia nut hullers, blenders, washing machines, corn shellers (which remove dry kernels from corn husks without breaking the kernels, avoiding breakage and loss during storage), grain mills (often coupled with corn shellers), water pumps, power generators, roof tile makers, bike trailers, coffee depulpers, and composters (which break up corn husks and stalks for faster composting). They can all easily be repaired using basic bicycle tools.

The grain mills and corn shellers are often used to produce livestock feed mix. This means that farmers can produce their own feed from their own crops, at a much lower cost. At the same time, they avoid the chemical dyes and other potentially harmful substances found in commercial feed mixes. Many farms, including a chicken farm run by one particular women's group, have become 100% organic as a result.

In an area marked by poverty, with farms on steep mountainside slopes, and the high population pressures on the environment, machines like these are a step towards environmentally sustainable, more efficient, more economical forms of agriculture.

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