- Social Innovation Fellowship
Award Year
Agricultural Solutions in Kenya aims to help small-scale farmers adopt amaranth and other draught-resistant crops in Kenya. Agricultural Solutions began as an Engineers Without Borders project at Brown University. Through the project, Danielle has been researching the design of agricultural tools that aid in the production of amaranth by small-scale farmers in Kenya. This summer, Danielle will travel to Kilifi, Kenya to continue this research with the organization KOMAZA.
KOMAZA (Swahili for "encourage growth") promotes sustainable tree farming practices in Kenya. Danielle and her partner Ana will aid KOMAZA in its efforts to expand its work to include food crop production. Danielle and Ana will work primarly with farmers to grow amaranth, a drought-resistant food crop with a high nutritional value. Because these farmers are facing the devastating effects of global warming on their farming yield, new draught-resistant crops will help these farmers adapt to a changing climate.
Danielle will additionally aid KOMAZA in its research on appropriate farming technologies.
Personal Statement
Danielle is in her third year of Mechanical Engineering. Danielle is particularly interested in sustainable development, and has been working with Agricultural Solutions in Kenya through Brown’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders for the past two years. In her first year of the project, Danielle worked with other students to design several prototypes of agricultural tools, namely a thresher, a seeder, and a drip irrigation system. While the amaranth thresher is able to minimize grain loss in the threshing process, the seeder plants seeds evenly and efficiently, and the drip irrigation system is able to reduce water consumption. Danielle further researched the implementation process of various successful tool innovations for small-scale farmers in Kenya for her independent study course.