Sowing groundnut is an uphill task, particularly, for farmers with waist problems.

All that is however set to end with the ingenuity of a farmer at Adansi Fomena in the Ashanti Region who has designed a planter.

The groundnut planter has a jab with two wheels and a spring which controls digging and sowing.

This invention was showcased at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology during a sensitization programme for farmers in the Ashanti region.

It has a hopper for storing seeds and handle with an ejection mechanism.  An earth chisel is attached to the planter jabs to create a hole for the seeds.

The ejector is pressed to release two to three seeds from the hopper at a go through a pipe into the hole and covered by a metal sheet.

It is the brain and handiwork of groundnut farmer at Fomena, King David.

He was motivated to come up with the technology as ageing makes bending and rising from manual planting puts a strain on him.

Mr. David is hopeful the machine would save time and energy during sowing.

Meanwhile, the man behind the cocoa pod cracker, Ofori Tweneboah, has fine-tuned his design.

After breaking the pod he has designed a mechanism to pull the beans from the chamber.

Donald Amrago a Research Fellow at the university’s Technology Consultancy Centre is happy the communities are responding well to the University’s programme.

“We are looking at how these farmers can be creative by providing solutions to challenges they will meet,” he said.

Other equipment on display at a sensitization programme are cassava uprooter and rice thresher.