The Teff Mudders, our team working to build a low cost teff seed planter in Ethiopia, share the trials and triumphs of planter prototypes. 

We began our first day of teff planter testing by driving to Debre Zeit Research Center, about two hours outside Addis Ababa, to get down and dirty and test some very crude prototypes in the Ethiopian soil.

However, when we got there we were pretty confused. In front of us was a mostly dry and extremely clumpy soil. Since this was the dry season, and teff is planted in the rainy season, our initial thought was that the land hadn’t been irrigated to simulate the soil conditions for the rainy season. When we asked, however, we learned that farmers in this area plant teff under different soil conditions than the farmers in Bahir Dar, where we had first seen this soil. Though our prototypes were designed for the wetter, more level soil we saw in Bahir Dar, we determined that there was still plenty to learn from testing them on drier, clumpier soil.

We had two categories of prototypes: those that created a furrow (for placing the seed underground), and those that would help the planter move across the soil (like skids or wheels). Because the ground wasn’t level, our furrow makers only touched the ground part of the time. Plus, the dry soil made it a lot tougher to move the furrow makers through the earth.

Our ideas for moving across the surface of the soil met the same fate. The clumpy dirt meant that our skis idea was in for a very bumpy ride. And they didn’t get very far on the dry soil.

One exception to this was Martin’s concept of using a large skinny wheel, sort of like a pizza cutter, to dig a furrow as it moved. This concept worked pretty well and gave us some material to brainstorm around when we returned home.

The fun wasn’t over yet though! One of our biggest questions to date has been whether the planter should be human powered or animal powered. We had heard that handling oxen can be very difficult, but we wanted to experience it firsthand. So…we rented a pair for the day!

We were “behind the wheel” as the oxen plowed the land and pulled some previously designed teff row planters. Though it was difficult for us to control the oxen, we didn’t think it was so hard that we could rule out an animal-pulled planter. 

All in all, our day was educational, tiring, and quite a bit of fun. We now know that the planting conditions vary widely, and we’ll have to either design for, or around, that constraint. Plus we can now all check “plowing a field with oxen” off our bucket lists!