Corn Sheller

Maize (corn) is one of the most important staple crops in the world. In Asia, maize production is over 200 billion kilograms a year and it is expected that the total maize production in developing countries will eventually overtake production in industrialized countries.

In many rural areas of developing countries, the maize kernels are removed from the cob by hand in a process called shelling. Shelling the annual maize harvest by hand typically takes weeks and may pull children out of school, since processing food for survival takes priority over education in subsistence farming households. The hardened, dry maize can also be painful to shell and lead to hand injuries.

 Existing alternatives to shelling maize by hand are often unaffordable or difficult to obtain for subsistence farmers. An estimated 550 million small-holder farmers in the world lack access to mechanized agricultural technology. Industrial maize shellers are prohibitively expensive and small-scale hand-cranked or pedal-powered maize shellers cost more which is still more than many families can afford. While industrial shellers are highly productive, their energy infrastructure requirements can render them unusable in rural villages. Furthermore, mechanized equipment and stationary pedal-powered devices are difficult to transport to the users. As a consequence, farmers may be required to travel long distances to process their crops or the technology may not be able to reach the communities who need it most.

Another option is a simple tool that makes it possible to shell maize several times faster than by hand. The device has the additional advantages of being robust, portable, transparent to users and only a fraction of the cost of other alternatives commonly on the market. The maize sheller is currently mass-produced using injection-molded plastic or cast aluminum. In regions where the device is not currently being manufactured or distributed, the tool cannot be locally made using these infrastructure-intensive processes.

There has been development of several versions of the maize sheller that can be made using locally available materials and methods.