Simple Technology to Get to the Nut of a Problem(1/2)

Peanuts, or groundnuts, are an important crop in many developing countries. But getting them out of their shells is tiring without a machine. In two thousand one, a Canadian inventor, Jock Brandis, designed a hand-powered peanut sheller for a village in Mali. In one hour it can shell about fifty-six kilograms of peanuts.

By the end of this year, twenty countries will be using the Universal Nut Sheller and other technologies from the Full Belly Project. This nonprofit group was established in North Carolina in two thousand three. The aim is to fight hunger and help rural economies with labor-saving agricultural devices that can be reproduced locally.

Former Peace Corps volunteer Jeff Rose heads the Full Belly Project. He says a village in Malawi used a single sheller to process thirty tons of peanuts over two months.

Selling them raised sixteen thousand dollars. The United States Agency for International Development also provided money, and the village was able to build a water well. That single machine, says Jeff Rose, cost the village just twenty-eight dollars to make.

参考译文：

花生是很多发展中国家的重要农作物。但是如果没有机器的帮忙，剥花生壳是一件非常繁琐累人的工作。2001年，加拿大的发明家约克•布兰迪斯为马里的一个村庄设计了一款手动的花生脱壳器。这种脱壳器在一小时之内可以给56公斤花生脱壳。

到今年年底，将会有20个国家用上由温饱项目（按照字面理解就是填饱肚皮的项目）提供的环球脱壳器以及其他的技术。这一非盈利性组织是于2003年在北卡罗来纳州建立的，此组织的目的是为了对抗饥饿，并且用可以在当地生产的节约劳动力的农业设备来帮助农村经济的增长。

美国和平队原志愿者杰夫•罗斯是温饱计划的负责人，他说马拉维有个村庄用一个脱壳器在两个月之内为30吨花生脱壳。

出售花生使那个村庄获利1万6千美元，而且美国国际开发援助署也提供了一部分资金，那个村庄用这些资金建起了一口水井。杰夫•罗斯说这个脱壳器只花费了28美元的造价。

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