Production Training and Resource Research

PRODUCTION TRAINING (Mar 23 & 24)
Last week, the agriculture school students returned to school on Tuesday because of the elections.  So on Wednesday and Thursday I spent the mornings teaching them the production process.  Over the weekend, I had arranged for a drum to be modified into a kiln, paid for several presses to be made, and perhaps became the favorite new random customer of the construction store in town, having stopped by 3 times in 4 days.

Wednesday's Agenda: a process overview from beginning to end, and then practice for the first half (filling the drum to carbonization).  The students had gathered a lot of pressed sugarcane and corncobs just prior to the weekend, so I decided to give the bagasse a try (as I had never worked with it before).  STEPS: SET-UP drum > FILL DRUM with biomass > LIGHT DRUM on fire > SEAL DRUM (to create low-oxygen environment).  Since the carbonization process takes at least 2 hours and the students had class in the afternoon, this was the natural breaking point.

Thursday's Agenda: The remainder of practice from crushing the carbonized material to laying our briquettes in the sun.  STEPS: empty drum and SORT CHAR (in case anything is uncarbonized) > CRUSH CHAR > MAKE BINDER > MIX BINDER & CHAR > PRESS INTO BRIQUETTES.

Lessons?  We can pack the drum tightly and bagasse needs to burn for less time than corncobs before you seal the drum.  This week, we've taken a production break... but I'll try to note the time when we return to production next week.

RESOURCE RESEARCH (Mar 29 and ongoing)
This week I've tried to focus at least half my time on learning more about the feedstock availability of our preferred biomass... and about the local economy in Central Plateau in general.  Yesterday, Berry (my interpreter) and I walked to Carrefour Ledan to the closest sugarcane mill we knew of (20-30 minutes).  But it closed because the nearby farmers had decided to change their preferred crops from sugarcane to other crops (plantains and vegetables).  So after a couple river crossings, we arrived another 40 minutes later at Salmory where there was a sugarcane mill that just finished its production cycle.  The owner was off at another mill he owns, but a caretaker was able to host an informal interview of the property, which hosts primarily sugarcane, but also contains tobacco and a drying shed as a supplementary business.

Today, we went to Papaye to visit the Little Brothers and Sisters of St. Therese.  There, the order hosts an agriculture school, sugarcane mill, cassave processing plant, and a peanut production (all as businesses).  In addition, they provide equipment for corn milling for local peasants, provide sharecropped land for about 50 families, and are trying to host weekend "school" for children in the area who cannot afford to attend school.  This is the order that Brother Armand left to establish the Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnation in Pandiassou.  As one of the few places I've heard of in Central Plateau with production for crops other than sugarcane... I am very intrigued why more food production is not common in the countryside.  Apparently the brothers at Pandiassou used to have similar businesses (peanut production, cassave)... but I have not had a chance to ask why they have failed yet.

Tomorrow, I plan to get to the field to visit several more sugarcane mills and reconnect with the school for further production activities and debriefing the students on their consumer interviews in detail.  Friday, I finally meet with the local Ministry of Agriculture office to see if they have any trustworthy data for crop production and food production on a regional level.