..

..
..G L O B A FL I VH IALNLKARGAE MC EONN’SST RG UR CO TU IPO N
.. SET
. TRACTOR BUILD PROJECT

FINANCIAL REQUEST
PROPOSAL
GHANA TRACTOR BUILD PROJECT IS BEST
OPPORTUNITY
FOR GHANA AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT

1
 ..
..
..
..
Why Build Tractors?.
Africa is on the verge of a food shortage with the expectant population growth of two
billion people by 2050, the majority of farmers in Africa are the women and youth. This
prediction alone summarizes the scale of our agricultural challenges: to feed Africans and
to create wealth for them, and to conserve resources for future generations.
Farming and the use of machines such as tractors and combine harvesters are what have
made agriculture in the G7 countries so successful. According to the World Bank there are
around five tractors for every 1,000 farmers in Africa as compared to 1,600 tractors for
every 1,000 farmers in the U.S. Where in Europe or America today do you find a man and
a woman cultivating their farm with a simple hand-hoe to sustain their family as is so
common in Africa? In most EU countries less than 5 percent of the population are farmers,
yet in most sub-Saharan countries as much as 80 percent are small-scale farmers, the
majority of which are women. It was with this in mind that in 2014, through the Malabo
Declaration, the African Union (AU) recognized the importance of resorting to
mechanization to accelerate agricultural growth in Africa it is also the answer to the GMO
dilemma. It was the reason that Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, commissioner for Rural
Economy and Agriculture with the AU, recommended the hand hoe to be banished from
the continent.

This process recognizes that African women constitutes close to seventy percent of the
agricultural workforce and are major contributors to food production and security.
Mainstreaming their participation with the use of tractors and empowerment in Africa’s
agricultural revolution is therefore critical. Agriculture and agribusinesses can also
provide opportunities to millions of our young people entering Africa’s labor markets
every year.
The Fihankra Men’s Group, Tractor Build Project seeks to drive our continental
agricultural revolution, by increasing the use of Tractors in agriculture in Africa.

WHO WILL BUILD THE TRACTORS?

The Fihankra Men’s Group, affiliated with Open Source Ecology, a network of farmers, engineers, and
supporters that for the past five years has been creating a Global Village Construction Set. An open
source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for easy, DIY fabrication of the
50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts.
The GVCS lowers the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing and can be seen as a
life-size lego-like tractor and a set of modular tools that can create entire economies. The task of
Fihankra Men’s Group is to teach people in small villages in Africa how to make tractors, and tractor
implements from local resources with basic machine shop skills. The tractor parts once machining is
complete will be assembled by a joint team of students, local men, and The Fihankra Mens Group in
the village to show and teach the school students, dignitaries from the Ghana National House of
Chiefs, and other on lookers from the village and surrounding area the fabrication of this tractor. The
first Agriculture project which the tractor will be featured for use is in the village of Kwasidiaka, Ghana
Eastern Region. We have an offer to jointly use 261 acres of land in a community project where we
work with the local people farming crops and use land for residential purposes. The land is located
about 2 hours from Accra in the Eastern Region of Ghana. After the first tractor build is complete the

2
 ..
..
..
.. can adopt the blueprints and produce it themselves. All of the materials that will
schools and villages .
be used to fabricate the life trac 6 tractors will be from the local materials, so that all parts are
available locally for subsequent tractor builds. Of the 50 machines in the Global Village Construction
Set, We choose tractors to fabricate, first, because the need for food is the first priority. We also wish
to focus on job creation from the fabrication of tractors in Ghana.

What will it take to make the Tractor Build Project Successful?

Basic Advanced Workshop

A basic advanced workshop - which allows for the production of many GVCS machines - which
also features the efficiency required for extreme manufacturing rapid builds - contains these 7
tools:
1. CNC Torch Table for cutting steel parts- $12,000
2. 120 Ton Ironworker machine for rapid shearing and hole punching of 1" thick metal -
$21,000.00
3. CNC Mill - $17,000
4. CNC Lathe - $15,000
5. Heavy Duty Drill Press (2" hole drilling capacity) - $10,000
6. 200 Amp MIG Welder - $2,000
7. Acetylene Torch - $400
Total cost of Machine Shop Equipment $77,400
This would allow one to build all the above tools (self-replication), plus things like tractors,
microtractors (lawnmowers), pelletizers, engines, hydraulic motors, and other things from open
plans, using CNC assistance.

A Mobile Machine shop truck.

A mobile machine shop truck equipped with a 20kw PTO generator, a metal lathe, a big air
compressor, a grinder, work benches, tables and drawers. The truck also has to have a cool
hydraulic side lift system that opens the shop up completely. This is the perfect "goes
anywhere" machine shop."

3
 ..
..
..
..
.

Cost of Surplus Military Mobile Machine Shop Truck:

$25,000

GVCS Machining Blueprints:

OSE is developing 50 machines of the Global Village Construction Set via module-based design. This
means that the 50 machines are broken down into modules, and each module can be developed in
parallel with other modules. Examples are CEB Press and Tractor. The exact list of GVCS machines has
evolved over time and is still subject to change. Graphical list of 50 machines on OSE main website

• Open Source - freely published 3d designs, schematics, instructional videos, budgets, and
product manuals on open source wiki and have harnessed open collaboration with technical
contributors.

• Low-Cost - The cost of making machines is, on average, 8 times cheaper than buying from an
Industrial Manufacturer, including an average labor cost of hour for a GVCS fabricator.

• Modular - Motors, parts, assemblies, and power units can interchange, where units can be
grouped together to diversify the functionality that is achievable from a small set of units.

• User-Serviceable - Design-for-disassembly allows the user to take apart, maintain, and fix
tools readily without the need to rely on expensive repairmen.

• DIY - (do-it-yourself) the user gains control of designing, producing, and modifying the GVCS
tool set.

• Closed Loop Manufacturing - Metal is an essential component of advanced civilization, and

our platform allows for recycling metal into virgin feedstock for producing further GVCS technologies -
thereby allowing for cradle-to-cradle manufacturing cycles

• High Performance - Performance standards must match or exceed those of industrial

counterparts for the GVCS to be viable.

• Flexible Fabrication - It has been demonstrated that the flexible use of generalized machinery
in appropriate-scale production is a viable alternative to centralized production.

4
 ..
..
..
.. Economics - We encourage the replication of enterprises that derive from the
• Distributive.
GVCS platform as a route to truly free enterprise - along the ideals of Jeffersonian democracy.

• Industrial Efficiency - In order to provide a viable choice for a resilient lifestyle, the GVCS
platform matches or exceeds productivity standards of industrial counterparts.

Ghana Tractor Build Project.

Comparison of Open Source LifeTrac (Post-Industrial, parts only) and Industrial Equipment
Costs

Item LifeTrac Industrial

Tractor With loader and PTO 4,000 25,000
Tiller 400 2,000
Skid loader 25,000
backhoe 500 5,000
well rig 1,500 9,200
CEB Press 8 bricks per minute 6,500 100,000
Sawmill 1,500 15,000
Spader 500 5,000
Microcombine 500 20,000
Hammer mill 500 5,000
posthole digger 300 2,000
baler 500 5,000
Bale spikes 150 500
hay mower 200 2,000
hay rake 500 2,000
Toothbar bucket 300 1,200
Trencher 500 5,000
brushhog 400 900
Road grader 500 5,000
Bulldoze
r 5,000 15,000
Chain saw 300 1,600
Labor 10,000
PowerCube(3) 5,907

40,457 251,400

Cost of Life Trac 6 and other farm implements $40,457.00

5
 ..
..
..
..
.
Shipping cost: 5000
Miscellaneous 1800
Total cost: 149,657

We are asking for initial financial support of

149,657.00 US dollars to cover equipment, parts,
material, labor, and shipping.
After completion of the first project the Tractor Build project should be able to sustained and
supported by local economy.