Nut shelling machine to replace laborious hand shelling in Malawi. 
Small Independent Farmers of Malawi have now been provided with a machine for automatically removing the shells from peanuts. Initiatives such as this will start to help the 108,000 smallholder farmers of Malawi reduce their dependency on growing tobacco.
This peanut (known locally as ground-nuts) shelling machine was purchased for a group of small independent farmers in Malawi in July 2007 as a result of the extra funding provided by 1st -nation as part of 
their tobacco purchasing programme.
The peanut sheller is mobile so it can be used by lots of small farmers throughout Malawi.
Traditionally in Malawi the outer shells of the peanuts are removed manually because the low price received by the farmers doesn’t provide enough income to purchase a machine to do the work. However, with this Peanut Shelling machine the farmers will be able to remove the outer shells far more efficiently, creating additional income and more highly skilled employment.
By providing local farmers with an opportunity to grow peanuts more profitably they will have an economic alternative to growing tobacco which has become less profitable over recent years as tobacco consumption in the developed countries around the world has started to decline.