Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

AN OVERVIEW OF ENGINEERINGresponse to a national cement shortage. Though the yieldswere lower and they produced cement of more variable quality,they had the advantage of reduced transport costs, beingcloser to both raw materials and markets.The first commercial small-scale cement plant developed byATDA went into production in 1981. Within four years, therewere nineteen units in operation in India, the world’s secondlargest cement producer, and there are now 300 mini-cementplants with a total installed capacity of around 11 milliontonnes a year. The largest cement producer, China, has 50,000mini-cement plants.SugarTurning briefly to sugar processing by the late 1970s, whenITDG first started work on sugar technology, there were severalthousand small-scale Open Pan Sulphitation (OPS) plants inIndia. These OPS units had a capacity of between 100 tonnesand 200 tonnes of cane per day, compared with large-scalemills based on vacuum pan processing with capacities higherthan 1,000 tonnes a day, and can reach 20,000 tonnes. The OPSprocessing technique had developed in India in the 1950s andtogether with ATDA, ITDG sought to improve the technicalefficiencies and to transfer the technology to other countries.There are four mains steps in the manufacture of sugar: crushing,clarifying, boiling and recovery (crystallization and separation).Over a period of ten years, ITDG and ATDA developedand introduced two main technical improvements: screwexpellers to increase the yield at crushing, and shell furnaces,which improved boiling rates and allowed the use of wetbagasse (crushed cane) for fuel. The technology was successfullytransferred to Kenya and Tanzania, though the number ofOPS plants was fewer than had been hoped.the testing of small-scale yarn production. The context is quiteimportant to understand why this was pursued. At this time,the textile industry in India accounted for 15 per cent of industrialemployment and, in the decentralized informal sector,was second only to agriculture as a source of employment. Italso has to be remembered that because of Gandhi’s espousalof cotton spinning as an integral element of traditional Indianway of life, manual technologies for cotton processing heldgreat symbolic meaning to many people. The idea therefore ofshowing that manual cotton spinning to supply yarn to handloomweavers could work, held great appeal.In 1978, a pilot project was initiated by ATDA to demonstratethe technical feasibility of cottage spinning and to test its economicviability. Christian Aid supported the project and ITDGprovided a technical consultant from the Shirley Institute, theUK’s principal textile technology research centre. Technologicaldevelopment focused on improving the performance ofthe charkhas (the spinning machines) and on cotton preprocessing,i.e. the preparation of raw cotton for use by thespinners.Over time it was established that a hand-driven charkha wouldnot be practicable with more than six spindles. A 12-spindlepedal-driven charkha was developed, followed by a 24-spindlemotor driven charkha. The latter could produce two-anda-halftimes the yarn of the 12-spindle charkha without theOne reason for the limited spread of OPS plants was the regulatednature of the sugar market, both nationally and internationally.In India price controls sometimes meant that theby-products were worth more than the sugar, while elsewherethere were investment incentives available only for large-scaleprocessors. Sugar continues to generate a lot of debate in discussionsof trade regulations.CottonSmall-scale cement and small-scale sugar achieved some success;the technology worked – technically speaking – and wasfinancially viable. With cotton, the third processing technologythat ITDG devoted a lot of time and effort on, the story isless rosy. In 1986 a review of the textile programme concluded‘It is unfortunate that... little lasting achievement can be creditedto the programme.’ Why was this? What went wrong?The cotton story began in India in 1975, when an initial study– as studies often do – recommended further research and© SAICE The Monitor MerrimacMemorial Bridge Tunnel, USA.155