| has gloss | eng: The Full Belly Project Ltd is a non-profit organization based out of Wilmington, North Carolina, which designs labor-saving devices to improve the lives of people in developing countries. At present, one of their primary objectives is to increase the cost effectiveness of peanut agriculture as a means of sustainable development in those countries, through the development of affordable appropriate technology. There are an estimated half billion people across the globe in over 100 countries, primarily in the equatorial regions and particularly in Africa, dependent upon peanuts as their primary source of protein. Peanuts play a greater role in developing countries and offer multiple ancillary benefits: *Soil conservation (as legumes, peanuts nitrify soil, while their complex root system prevents erosion); *Animal feedstock (peanut hay, the upper portion of the peanut plant, can be fed to livestock); *Fuel Briquettes (compressed peanut hulls) ; *Foodstuffs (shelled peanuts, peanut flour, peanut butter); and *Increase in cash crops (peanuts themselves can be sold, but nitrification increases growth of other crops like maize and cotton). |
