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Sanoussi Diakité
The fonio husking machine was invented by Sanoussi Diakité, a Senegalese mechanical engineer. Diakité was awarded the Rolex Award in 1996 for the invention. Fonio is a staple crop in western Africa. Because the fonio grains are so small, their brittle outer shell is difficult to remove. "For hundreds of years, African women have carried out the painstaking task of preparing fonio by pounding and threshing a grain and sand mixture with a pestle and mortar. After one hour of this tedious work, only two kilograms of fonio are available for consumption and fifteen liters of water are needed to remove the sand." The whole process has been reduced from a 1-hour job to a 6-minute job. Diakité's solution was a device that gently abrades the surface of the seed before passing through a rotating mechanism, which removes the husks. The machine can husk of fonio in 8 minutes. Awards Diakité's device is an example of appropriate technology, because of its ability to solve a significan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senegal
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea to Guinea–Senegal border, the southeast and Guinea-Bissau to Guinea-Bissau–Senegal border, the southwest. Senegal nearly surrounds The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, which separates Senegal's southern region of Casamance from the rest of the country. It also shares a maritime border with Cape Verde. Senegal's capital is Dakar. Senegal is the westernmost country in the mainland of the Old World, or Afro-Eurasia. It owes its name to the Senegal River, which borders it to the east and north. The climate is typically Sahelian, though there is a wet season, rainy season. Senegal covers a land area of almost and has a population of around 18 million. The state is a Presidential system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mechanical Engineer
Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of arithmetic * Mechanical energy, the sum of potential energy and kinetic energy * Mechanical system, a system that manages the power of forces and movements to accomplish a task * Mechanism (engineering), a portion of a mechanical device Other * Mechanical (character), one of several characters in Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' * A kind of typeface in the VOX-ATypI classification See also * Machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ..., especially in opposition to an electronic item * '' Mechanical Animals'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolex Awards
Rolex () is a Swiss watch brand and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by German businessman Hans Wilsdorf and his eventual brother-in-law Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex'' as the brand name of its watches in 1908 and became ''Rolex Watch Co. Ltd.'' in 1915. After World War I, the company moved its base of operations to Geneva because of the unfavorable economy that led to business instability. In 1920, Hans Wilsdorf registered ''Montres Rolex SA'' in Geneva as the new company name (''montre'' is French for watch); it later became ''Rolex SA''. Since 1960, the company has been owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private family trust. Rolex SA and its subsidiary Montres Tudor SA design, make, distribute, and service wristwatches sold under the Rolex and Tudor brands. In 2023, Rolex agreed to acquire its longtime retail partner Bucherer, and in 2024, Rolex began construction of a new affiliate on Fif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fonio
Fonio, also sometimes called findi or acha, is the term for two cultivated grasses in the genus '' Digitaria'' that are important crops in parts of West Africa. It is a vital food source in many rural areas, especially in the mountains of Fouta Djalon, Guinea, but it is also cultivated in Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Senegal. Cruz, Jean-François (2004). ''Magazine on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture''. Vol. 20. Nr. 1. pp. 16–17. The global fonio market was estimated at 721,400 tonnes in 2020. Guinea annually produces the most fonio in the world, accounting for over 75% of the world's production in 2019. The name ''fonio'' (borrowed into English from French) is from Wolof ''foño''. In West Africa, the species black fonio ''( Digitaria iburua)'' and white fonio ''( Digitaria exilis)'' are cultivated; the latter is the economically more important crop. Fonio is a glumaceous monocot belonging to the grass family Poaceae and the genus Dig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staple Crop
A staple food, food staple, or simply staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for an individual or a population group, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and generally forming a significant proportion of the intake of other nutrients as well. For humans, a staple food of a specific society may be eaten as often as every day or every meal, and most people live on a diet based on just a small variety of food staples. Specific staples vary from place to place, but typically are inexpensive or readily available foods that supply one or more of the macronutrients and micronutrients needed for survival and health: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins. Typical examples include grains (cereals and legumes), seeds, nuts and root vegetables (tubers and roots). Among them, cereals (rice, wheat, oat, maize, etc.), legumes (lentils and beans) and tubers (e.g. potato, taro and yam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area.Sayre, April Pulley (1999), ''Africa'', Twenty-First Century Books. . With nearly billion people as of , it accounts for about of the world's human population. Demographics of Africa, Africa's population is the youngest among all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will exceed 3.8 billion people by 2100. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including Geography of Africa, geography, Climate of Africa, climate, corruption, Scramble for Africa, colonialism, the Cold War, and neocolonialism. Despite this lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes. After being harvested, dry grains are more durable than other staple foods, such as starchy fruits (plantain (cooking), plantains, breadfruit, etc.) and tubers (sweet potatoes, cassava, and more). This durability has made grains well suited to industrial agriculture, since they can be mechanically harvested, transported by rail or ship, stored for long periods in silos, and mill (grinding), milled for flour or expeller pressing, pressed for Seed oil, oil. Thus, the grain market is a major global commodity market that includes crops such as maize, rice, soybeans, wheat and other grains. Cereal and non-cereal grains In the grass family, a grain (narrowly defined) is a caryopsis, a fruit with its wall fused on to the single seed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appropriate Technology
Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technology, technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by its users, labor-intensive, efficient energy use, energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable, and localism (politics), locally autonomous. It was originally articulated as intermediate technology by the economist E. F. Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his work ''Small Is Beautiful.'' Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as People-centered development, people-centered. Appropriate technology has been used to address issues in a wide range of fields. Well-known examples of appropriate technology applications include: bike- and hand-powered water pumps (and other self-powered equipment), the bicycle, the universal nut sheller, self-contained solar lamps and Solar street light, streetlights, and passive solar building designs. Today appropriate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tech Awards
The Tech Awards (expanded in 2016 to The Tech for Global Good) is a program of The Tech Interactive (previously The Tech Museum of Innovation) wherein innovators from any country are recognized for technological contributions which benefit the greatest number of people. History The Tech Interactive created the award in response to The Millennium Project's State of the Future report, which recommends the granting of awards to accelerate technology to improve the human condition. The Tech has granted the awards yearly since 2001 to multiple recipients in each category, and as of 2011, one recipient in each category also gets a cash award of $50,000 from any of various award sponsors. Awards are granted in five categories - environment, economic development, equality, education, and health. In 2012, the categories changed to environment, economic development, education, health, young innovator, and Sustainable Energy. The sustainable energy category will not return in 2013. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malian Peanut Sheller
The universal nut sheller (UNS; formerly called the Malian peanut sheller) is a hand-operated machine capable of shelling raw peanuts. It is made of concrete poured into two fibreglass molds, metal parts, one wrench, and any piece of rock or wood that can serve as a hammer. It accepts a wide range of nut sizes without adjustment. Operators can make necessary adjustments. The life expectancy of the machine is around 25 years. The Full Belly Project is working to establish businesses that manufacture and distribute appropriate technologies such as the Universal Nut Sheller. History In 2001, Jock Brandis traveled to Mali to fix a small village's water treatment system. While there he met a woman who informed him that it would be of great service to her village if he could find an affordable peanut sheller for them. Upon returning to the United States he contacted peanut authority Dr. Tim Williams of UGA, who told Brandis of a Bulgarian peanut shelling design. Jock adapted th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Digitaria Exilis
''Digitaria exilis'', referred to as findi or fundi in areas of Africa, such as The Gambia, with English common names white fonio, fonio millet, and hungry rice or acha rice, is a grass species. It is the most important of a diverse group of wild and domesticated ''Digitaria'' species known as fonio that are harvested in the savannas of West Africa. The grains are very small. It has potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support sustainable use of the land. Despite its valuable characteristics and widespread cultivation, fonio has generally received limited research and development attention, which is also why the species is sometimes referred to as an underutilized crop. The name (borrowed by English from French) is from Wolof ''foño''. Fonio has continued to be important locally because it is both nutritious and one of the world's fastest growing cereals, reaching maturity in as little as six to eight weeks. It is a crop that can b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appropriate Technology
Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technology, technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by its users, labor-intensive, efficient energy use, energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable, and localism (politics), locally autonomous. It was originally articulated as intermediate technology by the economist E. F. Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his work ''Small Is Beautiful.'' Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as People-centered development, people-centered. Appropriate technology has been used to address issues in a wide range of fields. Well-known examples of appropriate technology applications include: bike- and hand-powered water pumps (and other self-powered equipment), the bicycle, the universal nut sheller, self-contained solar lamps and Solar street light, streetlights, and passive solar building designs. Today appropriate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
