Some rural Malawians have praised the impact of a Loughborough University power-generating tractor that aims to bring affordable green energy and food security to rural communities across Africa.

Aftrak combines solar microgrids and tailored tractors to empower smallholder farmers to significantly increase crop yields and incomes while providing access to clean, green electricity in rural communities.

Just about 12 percentof households in Malawi are connected to the national power grid, but access is disproportionately low in rural areas where 84 percent of the population lives.

According to the 2018 census, only four percent of the rural majority have access to grid power despite the introduction of the Malawi Rural Electrification Programme in 1980.

A team, including academics from Loughborough University, arrived in the country in June 2024 to implement the first phase of Aftrak integration within local communities.

Professor Dani Strickland from the University’s Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering said they accomplished a “phenomenal amount” in two weeks.

He recounts: “We’ve built a solar farm with eight panels, enough to provide electricity to the village. We have also undertaken a small solar farm as a demonstrator at the Tiyeni [charity] headquarters. It was a real team effort.

“We want the villages to feel like they have access to more electricity so they can improve their lifestyles and potentially increase education opportunities for the youngsters. They can also hopefully start growing businesses, bringing more income and using that to help maintain the solar farm going forward.

This was a trial to gauge if it was feasible to implement Aftrak in Africa.

“We’ve obviously found that is it, so we’d be looking for a proper field trial which would run for potentially up to two years. We’d be looking at different areas so we could monitor what was happening at different places and obviously we’d be working with Tiyeni to help monitor that impact.”

The university plans to roll out the initiative across Malawi and in the neighbouring Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Aftrak is raising investment to deploy its innovative technology across Malawi, where about 88 percent of the population lives without electricity access.

It aims to contribute to World Bank goals of providing electricity to 380 million people in Africa by 2030.

Nicholous Soko, a former teacher who now farms in Emsizini in Mzimba District, says the experience is life-changing.

He says: “This has brought new things to us. For so long we had no light, but because of Aftrak’s coming, we are no longer living in the dark.

“If you were to look at our gardens, you will see that we are facing many problems. The ground is hard and this is going to help us dig up the soil for ridges. We are very happy because, for a long time, we have not had anything to use [to dig the beds], but this machine will help us a lot. In a year or two, we’ll have a good harvest and we are going to extend our gardens.”

Elizabeth Gondwe is happy about the electricity which powers her television and household lighting system.

“We no longer need to dig with hoes. I told people that I am too old to dig. For years, we have been begging for a machine like this. We are now going to throw our hoes away and use the Aftrak to extend our farm and our gardens.”

Loughborough’s work on Aftrak comes in partnership with the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI) and Tiyeni, a local non-governmental organisation.

Tiyeni monitoring and evaluation manager France Gondwe has worked with smallholder farmers for more than two decades. He says: “Aftrak solves different challenges for farmers. Some of the households which now have access to electricity are already plugging in equipment and are using that for cooking, cleaning and even entertainment purposes.

The machine helps farmers break the hardpan to create deeper beds with the potential to increase crop yield up to two or three times per hectare.

“This will mean more food and greater income. Obtaining sufficient yields has been a real challenge for farmers as we tend to get a lot of rainfall that leads to flooding. So, this innovation helps people tremendously during these times.”

Dr Jonathan Wilson, project lead and lecturer in sustainable energy systems at Loughborough University, said: “In Malawi farmers cannot access the staples of modern life such as refrigeration and lighting without access to electricity, a luxury only 11 percent of the population benefit from.

“We have developed a self-sufficient solar micro electric tractor, increasing crop yields, profitability and the continued purchase of electricity for sustainable farming practices. We’re thrilled that Aftrak is already making its mark on African soil and bringing positive and life altering changes to people living in these remote communities.

In May 2024, Aftrak was named the $1 million Grand Prize winner of the Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy.— Lboro.ac.uk

Source: Nation online-16 0ctober 2024