The Hand-Pulled Small Seeds Planter

Alfred Alumai of Muni University in Uganda, along with Ronald Avutia and Yasin Angua of NilePro Trust, will evaluate the beneficial impacts of a small seeds planter for smallholder women farmers in Uganda. The tool facilitates row cultivation of millet, sorghum, and groundnuts, which saves time and labor associated with weeding and harvesting, and increases production and yield. It was developed with input from women smallholder farmers and has been successfully tested in a pilot study. They will now perform and evaluate full-scale field trials in northwestern Uganda with three women farmer groups over a six-month period. After subsequent tool refinement they will promote widespread adoption by conducting on-site demonstrations and workshops, and presentations via radio broadcasts.