Event Information

Join the Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) for a webinar symposium focusing on three important aspects of its multi-crop thresher system – performance, profitability, and promoting gender equity and ownership. Register for one, two, or all three sessions on Thursday, August 27. Each session will provide ample time for questions and answers with SIL leads focused in each area. SIL will provide a Certificate of Attendance for each webinar you attend.

Pick Your Focus Area – Join One, or All!

8 am CT – Performance Session: Register here!

Built by local artisans, SIL’s Multi-Crop Thresher handles maize, soybean, cowpea, common bean, millet, sorghum, rice, barley and other crops, reduces postharvest loss and is 40 times faster than manual threshing. The capacity of the thresher varies by crop and operation methods and requires fewer operators than manual threshing. Have questions? Want to know more? Join our PERFORMANCE SESSION led by Jeffrey Appiagyei (SAYeTECH, Ghana) and Dr. Kerry Clark (SIL) at 8am CT. 

9 am CT –Profitability Session: Register here!

Daily revenues associated with the crops threshed ranged from $47 to $379 per day. The cost of labor and transporting the thresher to the field combined constituted 72% of the total daily operating costs. Despite this, the thresher’s low operating cost of only $37 per day suggests that multi-crop thresher enterprises can be highly profitable. Have questions? Want to know more? Join our PROFITABILITY SESSION led by Dr. Edward Martey (SARI, Ghana), James Daka (FirstWave, Zambia) and Dr. Peter Goldsmith (SIL) at 9am CT.

10 am CT – Promoting Gender Equity & Ownership Session: Register here!

Data collected among 128 members of 15 women-led thresher groups indicates that 61% reported better prices for their crops and 55% reported an increase in cash on-hand and access to credit. Participants reported feeling more ‘important’ and that women’s views were respected because men recognized they controlled a valuable asset – a mechanized thresher. Have questions? Want to know more? Join our PROMOTING GENDER EQUITY & OWNERSHIP SESSION led by Dr. Kathleen Ragsdale (SIL), Dr. Mary Read-Wahidi (SIL) and Robert Kolbila (Mississippi State University) at 10am CT.

The ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss (ADMI) supported SIL’s evaluation of the performance, profitability, and promotion of gender equity and ownership of the multi-crop thresher.