Peanuts, or groundnuts, are an important crop in many developing countries. But getting them out of their shell is tiring without a machine.

In two thousand one, a Canadian inventor, Jock Brandis, designed a hand-powered peanut sheller for a village in Mali. In one hour it can shell about fifty-six kilograms of peanuts.

By the end of this year, twenty countries will be using the Universal Nut Sheller and other technologies from the Full Belly Project.

This nonprofit group was established in North Carolina in two thousand three. The aim is to fight hunger and help rural conomies with labor-saving agricultural devices that can be reproduced locally.