November 2009 Archives

Another beautiful invention by a man from a remote village in Malawi. This story is about Noel - a local villager from Mhuju in Rumphi District. Noel designed an amazing electric sprayer using used radio cassette motors, battery holders, switches and plastic squash bottles among other components. It really is an amazing product considering the materials it is made of.

According to Noel, he has so far manufactured more than 70 sprayers which he has sold to his customers since 2007. Each sprayer costs K1500.

Brave with Noel and the solar powered crop sprayer. Photo by Fiskani Msutu.

Why the invention?
Noel's motivation was the outbreak of army worms in 2007 which destroyed crops in the fields leading to famine in his community. During that time, the only available sprayers were electric sprayers - which were very expensive and poor farmers in the villages were the major victims. This pained Noel. He decided to make something affordable using locally-available resources that would help his people protect their crops.

The Challenge
After he successfully completed his prototype, he tested it and everything was perfect. But the major problem was that it was powered by dry cell batteries and this was going to cost the farmers (his main customers) much more in order to sustain it. Batteries needed to be replaced frequently.

SolarAid solves the power problem!
Noel heard about SolarAid and managed to visit their office to find out what they do. He carried his electric sprayer in case he found a potential customer on the way. SolarAid staff and volunteers got curious about his strange product and asked him what it was all about. He demonstrated it and new ideas came up. SolarAiders fixed the sprayer to their solar panel and it worked perfectly without batteries.

Noel was jubilant and now he plans to fit his sprayers with solar panels instead of dry cells. In addition to the sprayer, customers will be able to use their solar panels to light their homes, play radios and charge phones. He thinks this new development is going to promote his product and drive sales tremendously.

Noel with Carl, demonstrating the solar powered crop sprayer. Photo by Fiskani Msutu.

Environmentally friendly local pesticides
Noel has gone a step further by experimenting with local herbs to make pesticides. So far, he has managed to successfully produce pesticides from natural herbs. This has deliberately been done to protect the environment from harmful artificial chemicals as well as cutting costs. As climate change campaigners, SolarAid is proud of the use of our micro solar product for this purpose.

Please support this kind of innovativation as a means of fighting poverty. Please support SolarAid today.

Thank you.