Abstract
M.Tech. (Industrial Design)
This dissertation describes the participatory design process to develop a human-powered
shredder for improving compost production with, and for, small-scale urban farmers in
Soweto, South Africa. Historically marginalised farmers are challenging food insecurity from
within the Soweto food system, however, urban farms remain relatively unproductive as
farmers lack appropriate equipment and struggle to sufficiently reduce organic waste.
Therefore shorter and regular composting cycles are not being realised. This results in soils
remaining infertile and hence crop yields suffer. This study applied criteria from Appropriate
Technology (AT) as a means of governing design decision-making, and employed Human-
Centred Design (HCD) as a formal methodology for working with emerging farmers.
Participatory HCD was utilised to develop appropriate agricultural processing equipment in
collaboration with experienced farmers, composters and engineers. The design researcher
purposefully selected experienced experts from each of these three fields as the shredder
study’s key informants. Consecutive semi-structured focus groups, observation and fieldwork
facilitated data collection. Iterative prototyping, testing and design reflection formed the basis
for monitoring product design development. Being human-powered, the design favours
multiple operators. Human-power allows farming families to power shredders at will without
incurring added running costs. Thus, encouraging greater ‘resilience’ by considering, local
employment. The shredder use and maintenance has been found accessible by newcomers,
and serviceable using three basic hand tools. Components were purposefully sourced from
local suppliers where possible, thus favouring local manufacture. The shredder study aimed
to ‘nudge’ an increase in the ease and frequency of compost production by farmers.