Harvesting

Harvesting

The groundnut plants are annually harvested by being pulled or dug up. This is usually called ‘lifting’. There are various designs of equipment available to assist in lifting groundnuts. The Industrial Development Centre (IDC) originally developed a groundnut lifter at Maidururi for the savannah area of Northern Nigeria and later adapted for local manufacture for the Practical Action project in Magoye in Zambia. The lDC lifter is an attachment for an EMCOT plow. It is pulled by a draft animal, with two depth wheels and a plow-like bar for lifting up the groundnuts. The Practical Action groundnut lifter is a complete piece of equipment in itself. "A lightweight lifter suitable for groundnuts grown on 75 cm spaced ridges in sandy soils. Suitable for manufacture by village blacksmiths." The minimum equipment required would be a forge, anvil, hammer, tongs, chisel, and punch.