A team of students from UC Davis D-Lab partnered with the Association of Organic Farmers of Boa Vista do Acará (APOBV) to build an oil distillation device as a follow-up to IDDS Amazon in 2016. They designed an oil distiller that can be built with local tools and materials, operate in humid conditions with fire as the primary energy source and produce oil at high quality in a high quantity to sell to tourists in local markets. This report chronicles the development and testing of this device.

This dissertation by KNUST student Dickson Duah evaluated the performance of two rice threshers originally produced in a Creative Capacity Building training in Konongo, Ghana. The threshers were evaluated on the parameters of speed of threshing drum, rate of threshing, capacity, efficiency, losses and drudgery. The foot-operated thresher was found to outperform the hand-operated thresher on all parameters. The student also made recommendations to improve the design of the thresher for better performance.

This dissertation by KNUST student Francis Achaab evaluates the performance of a precision peanut planter developed at a Creative Capacity Building training in New Longoro, Ghana. The planter was evaluated on the parameters of planting depth, field capacity, field efficiency and rates of seed damage.

This dissertation by KNUST student Daniel Owusu evaluates the performance of a steel cocoa pod splitter originaly developed in a Creative Capacity Building training at Fomena in Ghana. It was evaluated on the parameters of splitting rate, percentage of beans damaged, and the force required to break one pod compared to the traditional method of using cutlass.