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MICROF REFERE LllX?ARY A project of Volunteers in Asia m Tiller. TV Edited By: Matthew S. Gamser, Helen Appleton & Nicola Carter Published by: The Bootstrap Press, an imprint of Intermediate Technology Development Group of N. America 777 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017 U.S.A. Available from: Intermediate Technology Pubtications 103/t 05 Southampton Row London WCIB 4HH U.K. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this microfiche document in any form is subject to the same restrictions as those of the original document. Technologies from the people Editcc! 5y MATTHEW GAMSER, HELEN Al’; LETON and NICOLA CARTER INTERMEDIATE TECHNOLOGY PUBLICATIONS 1990 First and foremost, thanks should go to all the case study authors and their organizations who have given this work both its objectives and its conclusions Being alongside them as they planned and implemented the “Tinker, Tiller’ project has been a valuable experience. We are grateful to Geraldine Skinner for translating tue Latin American case studies for this book. Thanks must go also !o the organizations that have funded this work, the Overseas Development Administration, the Ford Foundation, the Hilden ‘Trust, the Dr L.H.A. Pilkington Trust, and Shell International. Without their generosity. none of this work would have been possible. We are especially grateful tnat these institutions accepted the project’s flexible approach which enabled methods to adapt to tit the knowledge and experience of the authors. The results are much richer because of the understanding nature of our funders. Finally, special thanks to our colleagues Priyyanthi Fernando, Ebbie Dengu Andrew Maskrey, Adam Platt and Jill Georgiou of ITDG’s Policy and Country Representation Unit who have helped many times during this project, often saving the day. Intermediate Technology Publications 103-105 Southampton Row, London WClB 4HH, UK. Published in North America by The Bootstrap Press, an imprint of the intermediate Technology Development Group of North America, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York. NY 10017 0 Intermediate Technology Publications 1990 British Library Cataloguing in Pubiication Data Tinker, tiger. technical change. 1. Technological innovation 1. Gamsrr, Matthew S. Ii. Appleton, Helen III. Carter, Nicota 600 ISBN 1 85339 061 5 (UK) ISBN 0 942850 31 9 (USA) Typeset by Inforum Typesetting, Portsmouth and printed in Great Britain by BPCC Wheatons Ltd, Exeter Contents Acknowledgemenls Preface FRANK ALMOND Introduction Part I - Africa Regiona! ov;view J.G.M. MASSAQLlOl The coffee PIper in northern Tanzania SLMON R. XKONOK1 Residue stoves in Kenya MOHAMMED MWAM.A!?zINGO The grate cook’ng system in Zimbabwe M1~LLILI NCl!BE Salt from silt in Sierra Leone J.G.M. MASSAOL:OI Cassava processing innovations in Nigeria K.O. AIxxiYOYE AN” ,.A. AK,NW”M, The Nigerian cassava grater SELLSA AD,EF3ENG-,ASEM Part II - Asia Regional overview RAlCESH BASANT Farmers. fabricators, and formal R&D - the pipe frame multipurpose tool bar in Gujarat. India RAKEsi “ASANT Blacksmithy in Bangladesh M. MAINlJL HAQIII.. M. N”R”L ISLAM, M. NAZRUL ISLAM 99 103 121 3 6 21 34 48 64 80 iv vii ix Improved ghattas (water mills) in Nepal GANESN HAM SHRESTHA, KI:RAN MAN SING1-I Artificial fishing reef and bait technologies by artisanal fishermen of south-west India JOHN KADAPPURAM Parr III - Latin America Regional overview GUILLERMO RDCHABRUN Peoples’ innovations in housing construction in Huancayo, Peru FL.OR DE MARlA MDNZDN Technologies of survival in the slums of Santo Domingo DAVID SCOTT LUTHER Water, myth, and technology in a Peruvian coastal valley MARfA TERESA OR!&, GUILLERMO RCCHABRUN ‘Fire. water, and innovation in Chilean farming communities WALIX3 BUSTMENTE GOME% From three-stone fires to smokeless stoves in Venezuela LUIS MIGUEL ABAD The adoption and adaptation of solar energy technologies in the Bohvian Altiplano ROXA~NA MERCAD RODAS Killing artisanal fishing with kindness in Nicaragr .a OcrAVIO TAPlA Bibliography 136 150 182 198 212 221 233 245 2.58 271 Preface The process of development assistance has to tackle the problems of ignorance, backwardness, helplessness, and resistance to change - not amongst the rural poor but amongst development agencies themselves. Ahhough few members of the development community would wish to apply such characteristics to themselves, these are still implicit in the be- haviour of many institutions. This is especially true when work focuses on the areas of technology adaptation and innovation. Few development workers can honestly say that they are not guilty in some measure. The ignorance of development agencies is ignorance of unfamiliar technological approaches and ignorance of the richness of traditional resources of kno&edge. This richness is now being recognized widely, for example in the area of ethnobotany, where indigenous knowledge of genetic stocks of plants and their practical applications far outstrips that of the professional biologist and agriculturalist. The Tinker, Tiller, Technical Gmnge case studies demonstrate that equivalent levels of knowledge exist in other areas of indigenous technology. The backwardness of development agencies is in not taking account of the extent of local knowledge, and in not recognizing that communities living in close balance with their environment have had to develop survival strategies that depend on an ability to innovate and change One of the papers illustrates a remarkable degree of experimentation and innovation among fishing communities in southern India. In the face of declining lish stocks. locai fishermen experimented with and developed artificial reefs, lines, bait and other items of fishing gear. Tbe helplessness of development agencies is enshrined in programmes which do not build on local knowledge, skills and enterprise, but which seek to impose agencies’ systems and create yet more institutions to prop up external assistance structures. Schumacher said ‘help the poor to help themselves’. He did not tell us to assume that the poor are helpless. and to impose aid as a charitable exercise. One of the Tinker, Tilfrr. Technical Change case studies illustrates how an artisanal fishing industry in Nicaragua was stultified by a totally misconceived and overwhelming programme of support. The case study refreshingly and honestly analyses the failure of the project. This is something far too rare amongst development agencies anxious not to prejudice chances of funding in the future. vii Tke resistance IO change of development agencies is perpetuated by mon~litb~c ~r~a~~,~ati~~s and complex procedures which keep agencies distant from people in fields and villages. These harriers do not allow agencies to appreciate rhe real needs of local ~o~~~ati~~ns. AS an agency, l~termediate Technology (ITDG) believes that development, assism~c~e mm1 be guided by the p~~r~ic~~a~ts themselves, and must start from and build OR a clear knowledge of the resources, capabilities and k~~~~~ed~e of EocaB communities. The case study work for the Tinker, Elder, ~~~~~~~~~~ Change project was planned and executed by workers within the cnuntries represented. The seminar that presented this work to an ~~t~r~at~~~a~ audience was aiso designed by these workers. ~~rti~~~~t~~~ in programmes of work with local partners helps ITDG to develop a futler ~~~e~ta~d~~~ of the development process: not just an understanding of the trchnolog~es themselves and their economic environments. but :dso the processes. by which technologies can be adopted, adapt- cd and spread. !TDG also seeks to communicate that experience - to inform. infhrence and pcrsuadc all those who in some way participate in the d~v~~~~~~ne~t process. An important aspect of this role IS the provision of channels which may help the exchange of experience. and help other peophz and agencies to articulate their views and experiences. The Tinker Tiller, Techicol Chmgr project is but one example of how this may be achieved Frank Almond Chief Executive, ITDG VIII PTHEW GAMSEK, MELEN APPLE’TC)N and NKOLA CARTER Poor people in poorer countries are not ignorant, backward, or helpless regarding t~~~~~~~~~cal change. These people are no more mystified by machines and products from industrialized countries than are many people from these richer countries. Viltagers’ knowledge of local flora, fauna, and ~nv~~(~~rn~~t~~~ management can be more extensive than trained scientists’. t+-irFisar? solutions for effective USC of available raw materials are often far superior to solutions proposed by trained engineers. So why do so many atlempts to introduce ‘Western’ technology to de- vclqring cwntries end in failure? The answer is not hecause poor people in those c~:nmtries resist change, or because they are not prepared to work w~ith new machrnes and ideas. Considering the limited time during which Western t~~b~o~~~~~ has been present in many of these countries. the speed with which the poor have adapted to its presence is quite remarkable. In some cases. adaptation has allowed for the se of new materials and products. In some sases adaptation has allowed traditional production to survive in a ~orn~et~t~~,e environment where Western technology is present. In some cases locat innovation is not enough tL sustain traditional livelihoods. Bul in ah cases the poor are experimenting constantly, innovating in a struggle to survive. Peopks’ ~~c~~9lQ~y in a global perspective Cases ~~~~~e~te~ in this book show that the development process in most countries has marginalized poor people, their local knowledge. and their innovations. Technological development in most countries ir dominated by imports of products and machinery from outside which can binder peoples’ innovation. pormaiiy-trained scientists and engineers are put ‘up-front’ while artisans and other ‘informal’ innovators are at the back. Such policies lead to poor people losing control over local resources and decision- making that affects their lives. ~ar~~ox~~~~~. this situation can encourage the development of peoples’ tecb~~~o~~. ~~veroment actions may hinder local innovators and innovations but the worsening plight of the marginalized groups can provide a greater rn~t~vat~~~ to innovate. Unlike research scientists who innovate to satisfy their ~rofess~~)~a~ aspirations, peoples’ technology innovators work to survive. increased poverty can encourage the growth of peoples’ te~~n(~~Q~~eS. Peoples’ te~~~~~og~es grow in different ways from technologies ‘trans- ferred’ from outside. The latter are often parachuted into a country in a fixed package. Hardware and skill needs are set before arrival and may bear tittle relation to local skills and experiences. Labour and managemen: ~~q~~,reme~ts are established in countries of origin and are based on those countries’ so&o-economic priorities and cultural norms. Natural resource requirements. too. are based on economic and ecological concerns at points of origin. Peoptes’ technologies, on the other hand, develop and diffuse slowly and steadily t~r~~~gb a triai-arid-error process. They rely on close communica- tion between users and producers to identify changes required for improve- ment. Because of this close consultation, the technologies develop in a way that retains and builds upon local skills and closely reflects the priorities of locat people. Such technologies show greater consideration of gender roles. Use is less iikeiy to require men or women to do things that are physically, socially. or ~~~t~~ra~iy difficult or unacceptable. Because people don’t like to pollute their owa neighbourhoods. peoples’ technologies tend to be more ecologically sound. AMough poverty often stimulates development of peoples’ technologies, spreading these technoiogies can be difficult. Local innovation is not recognized by the formal scientific and industrial community. This denies peoples’ technologies access to technical information and to the financial and c~mrn~~jcatio~s channels open to the formal sector. The growth of peoples’ technology occurs in a horizontal pattern. across groups of poor people. Prevailing social, political. and institutional structures are barriers against this sort of poor-to-poor interaction and so the full potential of these technologies is seldom realized. Where peoples’ technologies have become widespread. a re-organization and adaptation of these structures has taken place. This is often made necessary by an economic, political, or environmerrtal crisis. The ‘ignored’ technological revolution From the perspective of large and expensive ‘technology-transfer’ projects, the history of technology in developing countries is a tale full of problems and short on progress. However, from the perspective of poor people and rhe technologies they employ in daily life, recent history shows many X dramatic ~~~ovatio~s. Africa is often singled out as the region most resist- ant to tec~oo~og~~~~ change, but it is in Africa that some of the most rapid and remarkable changes have occurred at the grass roots level. Tao~a~ia~ people were not permitted to grow coffe; until the 1920s (Europeans ~~ig~~a~~y controlled everythinp’. F :ow. Tanzanian small- holders account for most coffee productio;. a:3 Cc r *..M processing of arabica and robusta beans. The small-scale processing equipment is virtually all made locally. Far from being intimidated by foreign crops and technology. Tanzanian farmers ahsorbed outside inlluences at an impressive speed. By comparison. Scandinavian nations. now regarded as ad- vanced ~~d~sf~~a~ states, took far longer to assimilate the tools and products of the English industrial revolution! Nigeria‘.s people faced a food crisis in the early 1980s. Economic reces- sion forced an end to expensive cereals imports, upon which many people depended. Etut famine never arrived. Today the population relies on locally grown. locally processed cassava. For some of Nigeria, this is simply going back to a traditional food with a new marketing and processing system. Other Nigerians are learning to accept cassava as a new staple. I-low did such change occur in the largest country in Africa’! It was not simply a result of government laboratory products being introduced tbr~l~~h gifts of development aid. Change came mostly through t.he work of small artisans. traders and farmers. Ordinary men and women increased cassava production. developed processing machinery and organized processing enterprises to increase the consumption of guri, fufu and other cassava food products in Nigeria. The 1980s brought a similar crisis to Sierra Leone’s salt supplies. These were made up largely of rock salt imports from Senegal. When foreign exchange grew scarce, imports dropped. A development agency tried and failed to introduce solar salt manufacturing. Local salt producers, extrac- ting salt from filtering brine-rich silts, saved the day. These producers improved their techniques and expanded their output. Today they provide 35 per cent of national supplies and their production and market share continue to grow. Asia is seen by many as less of a technological problem area than Africa but some of the poorest countries and regions of Asia are often derided. Yet cases from some of the poorest parts of Asia demonstrate impressive innovations that have transformed life at grass roots level. Nepal is one of the world’s poorest and most technologically backward countries. In the 1950s it had virtually no local engineering capacity. Today it has at least eight private companies designing and installing hundreds of micro-hydro schemes. These provide mechanical and elec- trical power for crop processing and other rural needs. Small firms are literally lighting up the countryside and are transforming rural women’s lives by reducing the time and drudgery of crop processing tasks. The xi firms are nurturing local engineering skills that support other initiatives, such as large-scale electrification projects and the growth of new manufacturing industries. Nepali companies now export turbines and other micro-hydro system components to other Asian countries, and to Spain In Bangladesh, blacksmiths have attracted little public attention but they account for 5 per cent of the country’s gross output. 9 per cent of its value added, and 11 per cent of total manufacturing GDP. About :O,OOO black- smithing enterprises are a major source of non-farm employment in a nation with an estimated 65 million landless poor. Blacksmiths also help in import substitution, producing spare parts for power tillers and tractors. Without the blacksmiths, these parts would have to be imported - at twice the cost! Official recognition and local innovation Technologies arising from research laboratories have a support system to nurture their development. Government and aid agency funding supports introduction to new countries and markets. Academic and aid agency liter- ature describes the potential of ‘official’ technology and promotes its use. Peoples’ technologies generally have no such help. Poor people are not reccgnized as sources of new technology, so their initiatives are rarely examined. much less promoted. Yet the few cases where such recognition has taken place show what great potential there is for collaboration between scientists, policy makers, and local innovators. Development of the local micro-hydro industry in Nepal accelerated rapidly after the National Electricity Authority repealed a ban on private electricity generation for small mills - and even more rapidly after the Agricultural Development Bank offered capita: subsidies for upgrading mills. Local fabricators and foreign hydro experts have co-operated in experiments on new component designs and production techniques to re- duce costs further. This has made the benefits of micro-hydro innovations affordable to poorer mill owners and communities. In Gujarat, India, staff from an engineering research institution encour- aged local artisans to persevere with attempts to produce mutti-purpose, animal-drawn farm implements. Staff helped to persuade the government to include this type of tool in its farm equipment subsidy scheme. The multi-purpose tool bar has become one of the most popular new implements in the state. It has saved farmers time and has increased yields by enabiing greater control over fertilizer application. New manufacturers have set up in rural areas to produce the implement. Agricultural labourers, increasingly displaced by tractors and other large-scale machinery, retain their jobs on farms using the tool bar. Most official recognition of peoples’ technology seems to have occurred in Asia, but there are examples from other regions. Since 1981 the xii Tanzanian Academy of Sciences has run the TASTA (Tanzania Awards for Scientific and Technological Achievement) programme to recognize and reward local innovation. One producer of the widely used coffee pulper received this award, which has assisted his further refinement and promotion of the technology. Wowever. recognition can be a double-edged sword. Artisans require a certain degree of freedom and recognition can depiive them of vital room to manoeuvre. The provision of equipment, infrastructure and credit for artisanal fishermen on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua has driven off the few artisans that originally plied their trade in the Aserradores area. After $1 .Sm of ‘help’. only three of the 25 original members of the fishing community remain. The environment and peoples’ technologies There is great concern about the impact of new technologies upon the environment. Poor people feel this impact most acutely, for they are the ones in closest contact with threatened natural resources. What is little appreciated is that poor people are often at the forefront of technological change to protect and restore local environments. In the 1950s. artisanal fishermen from Kerala, the poorest state in India, first protested against the introduction of mechanized trawling in the Arabian sea. Their claim that fish s!ocks would be decimated was dismissed by fish&-s scientists, but the people have been proved correct. With their superior understanding of the local ecosystem, the fishermen are leading the way in developing technologies such as artificial reefs and species- specific baits to restore the shallow water marine habitat and populations. The state government now supports the fishermen’s research under its Five-Year Plan. and funds a collaborative research project on artificial reefs by its Marine Fisheries Research Institute and the fishermen’s union. The local community in the lea valley of Peru saw its lands and liveh- hood threatened by government land gratrts to rich outsiders. Expro- priation was limited only by the difficulty in irrigating the arid lands effectively. Boreweils delivered required water, but the crops fared poorly. Local farmers knew this was because of mttrient deficiencies in surface water-based irrigation. When the governmc,nt promised to build a canal from the Choclococha river to provide newcomers with irrigation water, the community did not react by just lamenting the lot of the poor. Instead, the community carried out its own 18km extension of an existing canal that dated hack to Inca times so that irrigation might be under its control. In the end, poor farmers lost out to larger landowning interests - but not as a result of a lack of technological knowledge or creativity. Indeed, the local peoples’ ‘civil engineering’ provided the base upon which agricultural productivity expanded greatly in the region. . . . XIII People living in the most difficult environments often show the greatest skill and innovation in dealing with environmental problems. In the poor, arid Coquimbo region of Chile, the greatest skill and initiative in water supply and irrigation is found in the community of Los Rules, where water resources are scarce even by regional standards. Farmers can det.ect under- ground water sources through surface inspection. They build specially designed hillside excavations (piques) to obtain subsurface water and elab- orate systems of dams and canals for water delivery. In the squa:ter settlements of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and in Wuancayo in Peru, people build houses in some of the most densely populated and difficult environments imaginable. Their homes are not pretty. but they are affordable and they enable families to survive. A wide variety of materials are used in construction, in hillside stabilization, and in the provision of basic services such as water, roads and power. Energy innovation: power from the people One of the most widely researched and reported areas of energy technology in development IS that of stoves for the poor. Scientific institutions and aid agencies have invested much time and effort in this cause, but few of their stoves are reaching rural households. This could be cause for despair. but the case studies of peoples’ energy technology provide a different, brighter perspective. In Zimbabwe, a cooking system consisting of a metal grate provided by metalworking artisans, and a hearth and windscreen constructed by women users in their kitchens, can be found in the vast majority of rural homes. This system has evolved over time as cooking practices and cooking pots have changed. The system owes virtually nothing to formal research and development and has been unreported in stove literatttre - but it is the innovation upon which rural Zimbabwean food preparation depends. The grate system provides a versatile and energy-efficient way to use firewood to cook local dishes. The seeds of a similarly dramatic innovation could be present in Kenya. Deforestation and rising fuelwood prices have led artisans and households in the Meru area to develop stoves that can use agricultural residues in place of wood. Up to 30 per cent of households in the local villages are now using the new stoves. Fuelwood scarcity is fostering local innovations of a different form in the Coquimbo area of Chile. At the beginning of this century, all houses cooked on open fires. Bread was baked by preheating stones with wood or dung. As wood became scarcer, ceramic stoves and ovens were developed. These evolved in size and in construction materials to make them suitable for all types of cooking and baking. As kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas fuels have become available, stoves using these have been introduced in many homes. xiv