Design that Matters Field Journal

UNDP Multifunctional Platform

Here are some brief notes and lots of pictures from our site visit in N'Tjila, where we visited a multifunctional platform installation that has been upgraded through a collaboration between the Mali Folkecenter and the Ministry of Energy and CNESOLER (National Centre for Renewable Energy). This particular platform features a diesel engine modified by the MFC to run on jatropha oil, a heavy vegetable oil made from a locally-available plant. Through a network of heavy leather belts, the engine shaft drives a jatropha oil press, as well as a battery charger and a shea-nut press.

Like most NGO projects, the site was indicated by a sign on the main road--although Tom Burrell at MFC later pointed out that this sign actually refers to a different mulitfunctional platform site in Bougoulaba (near N'Tjila).

Once off the paved road, things got a little dicey but out driver Mustafa plowed through the deepest puddle without any trouble.

Along the way, Tom Burrell from the MFC showed us a hedge of jatropha maintained by the village, and gave us all kinds of useful stats on the processing of jatropha seeds that I will add later.

Martin also took notes.

At the site, the technician fired up the motor to give us a demonstration of one of the presses. This particular press produced a paste from shea nuts. In fifteen minutes, the machine was able to zip through a quantity of nuts that previously took village women eight hours to pound by hand using a kind of oversized mortar and pestle.

The battery charger had broken two weeks ago. Unfortunately for these kinds of projects, spare parts are hard to come by.

Fortunately, the MFC has trained the operator how to fix these and any other maintenance issues with the engine and cooling system, the jatropha press and the shea nut press. The platform is generating funds by pressing karité (shea nuts), so when he has time, the operator will be able to go to Sikasso or Bougouni to replace the broken battery charger component. It is this kind of training that makes the difference between a sustainable or nonsutainable project. As Andy Smith pointed out, it isn't so much Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) that is the important statistic in determining the lifespan of development projects--because even the best pieces of eauipment will eventually break down. Rather, it would be more useful to track Mean Time To Repair.

According to Tom at MFC, there is no problem (at least in Sikasso and other towns) with the availability of spare parts for the multifunctional platform setup in N'Tjila, the generator part in question having originally come from an old car or truck. It is easy to find and replace. All other components for the platform are available in Mali, including the jatropha press, which MFC first brought to Mali from Nepal and trained local technicians to build.

And that was the multifunctional platform. As usual, lots of village kids showed up to watch the proceedings.

Posted by Timothy Prestero at July 13, 2003 06:58 PM