Brookston, Indiana … George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) once said, ‘Some men see things as they are and say why, I dream things that never were and say, why not.’ Robert Kennedy would later use the same quotation, renewing its impact and awareness.
In Brookston, Indiana entrepreneur A. J. Batt has lived this theme for much of his life. A. J. grew up on a farm in southern Indiana with a love for farm life. He graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana with a master’s degree in Agronomy, and spent much of his career with Carter Manufacturing in Brookston. His job there was to modify farm equipment from their large formats to a design that would meet the needs of agronomy researchers needing smaller specialized equipment. His hobby has been to repair and farm with vintage equipment and come up with new ideas for farm equipment.
In recent months A. J. has become involved with volunteering with the Malawi Project and it did not take long for him to see a need he could address. Seeing pictures of people bending down to drop a single seed, and a spoon of fertilizer, into planting rows made him start to think of ways he could make it easier for the village farmers in Malawi. This is when he designed a new way to plant that would not require the up and down movements of the current method.
A. J ’s new method offers the farmer, often the mother in the family, the ability to remain standing and drop the seed and fertilizer down the long tube to its proper place in the row. A few inches in front of the seeding tube a second tube acts as a marker for the location of the next seed drop. Made of PVC pipe, these planting units cost less than $15.00 to produce, and offer much needed relief from the constant up and down currently called for in seed planting. Several of the units were recently shipped to the country to conduct tests in order to gain knowledge about value and receptivity. If successful many of the units can be made in the states and distributed in Malawi at a relatively low cost. Manufacturing could also begin in Malawi and offer independence to small business types seeking a way to provide a living for their families.