M a t t i s S t o l z e ( s t o l z e m a @ e t h z . c h )P a s c a l T r a c h s l e r ( p a s c a l . t r a c h s l e r @ o u t l o o k . c o m )

F R O M W A L N U T S T O O I L

f o r a b e t t e r l i f e i n w e s t - n e p a l

200kg walnuts, 2 months of hard work and 12L of oil per household

In the context of a field trip to western Nepal we observed how Nepali farmers traditionally

produce walnut oil for food purposes. Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, aiming to improve

Nepalis’ income situation, had the idea to help Nepali women by improving this process. The

Nepali walnut is a “tough nut to crack”, as the shell is very thick. Currently it takes one fa-

mily more than two months to produce 12L of walnut oil from 200kg nuts. Women perform

a lot of manual labor in Nepal and take care of the kids. They look forward to reducing the

amount of hard work.

A more deep-rooted need is the necessity to earn an extra income. Many women comp-

lained that their children need better education to find a way out of poverty, but families are

lacking resources to send their children to school. Farmers need products that allow better

profits and they need access to markets. This challenge has educational, financial, logistical

and technological aspects

T H E N E E D

Walnut oil could sell at 20-40 USD per liter in Kathmandu, more than 4 day wages.

The farmers would be willing to sell a portion of their products if they received an adequate

price and if production was less labor-intensive. In Kathmandu, Nepal´s capital, 2 days of driving

east of Jumla, prices for virgin olive oil in supermarkets are around 18 USD per litre. A growing

middle class and international tourism is hungry for high quality Nepali food products. Projected

prices for walnut oil could exceed as much as 4 to 8 daily wages. We found potential customers

in Kathmandu who were absolutely enthusiastic about our product.

200kg walnuts, 5 days, and 15L of oil

60kg of nuts shall be processed to 5kg of filtered oil in one day. This goal has several dimen-

sions: First of all there is the idea of increasing the throughput by more than one magnitude.

Our machine can be much faster compared to manual labor. Currently 1kg of nuts are crus-

hed and separated per person per day. The yield shall not be less than 90% compared with

the current process.

T H E P O T E N T I A L

T H E G O A L

5 designers, pd|z (ETH) and Helvetas

MITO started as a “tandem project” in March 2016 with Pascal (industrial design, ZHDK) and

Mattis (mechanical engineering, ETHZ). Currently, we are four motivated master students

and Pascal, now graduated industrial designer and research assistant at pd|z.

The MITO team, Helvetas and the pd|z work very closely and openly together. pd|z works

on the application level and develops specific products. On the other hand, it develops and

tests methodologies in the development process. The pd|z acts as a coach and provides a

great knowledge base.

Helvetas, the initiator of the project, can look back on decades of development work in

Nepal. The existing know-how helps us finding a user-centred solution and ensures the long-

term implementation and sustainability in Nepal.

W H O W E A R E

user-centered design, building a value chain

The technological goal is to develop a scalable process to produce high quality walnut oil for

food purposes. A simple user-friendly machine emerges as a result of a methodical user-cen-

tered development process. Fast iterations and testing leads to success on the application

level with many iterations. The difficulty is to develop a product which is as simple and robust

as possible. We need to crush the hard shell and separate shells from kernels to be able to

extract oil in a last step. All this is framed by the local context: in operation electricity is

not available, transport to remote areas is often challenging, and manufacturing in southern

Nepal cannot draw on the well-established, precise technologies known in Switzerland.

A value chain will be tailored to the user and the product. In a pilot project, Helvetas and

MITO will tackle educational, financial, logistical and business-related challenges. A sustain-

able business case will be developed in Nepal.

H O W W E G E T T H E R E

1 year of r&d in two phases

March 16 - September / 16 (first phase): need-finding, problem definition, ideation &

concepts

September / 16 - April / 17 (second phase): concept freeze, integration of sub-sys

tems, detail-engineering, simple dimwensioning, three inte

grated tests

From May / 17 Pilot project in Nepal, design of manufacturing, ad

aption to the context

T I M L I N E