TRAILS UP NORTH

The man who believed he can
GLO A. TUAZON

HINGYON, Ifugao -- In a lot beside the Catholic Mission Church here is a small shed that houses the odds and ends of the organic garden project there. This is where Daniel Ihing, a 37-year-old inventor originally from Hungduan tinkers with his borrowed tools to create small machineries. He said he was not able to pursue college so at one time he had to forego lucrative dreams and high paying jobs.

What he does now may not bring him fortunes but he creates with a purpose in mind. Working with the rectors of the parishes in Ifugao gave him inspiration to go back to the basics to uplift in his own small ways both the “little people" and help save the environment at the same time.

Daniel said he once thought of learning to fabricate motor vehicles, passenger jeeps in particular but he does not have the capital to start one. So he thought of smaller projects to make instead. That brought him his first creation, the micro shredder. Painted in bright orange and rigged with a motor, the machine runs on electricity. Ifugao is mainly an agricultural province so most of the blue collared workers are either farmers or woodcarvers.

With his invention, biodegradable waste materials and uprooted grass and weeds from garden clearings can be converted to become compost materials or livestock food. The process is to insert the grass in the orange upright tube where a blade shreds it to tiny pieces. The shredded pieces then come out from the horizontal tube.

The concept here is that of a food processor or blender, put something in to be shredded into bits. With this machine, farmers and livestock raisers can save a lot on fertilizers and feeds. The other benefit aside from that is the fact that everything here is organic.

The need for synthetic fertilizers and feeds are lessened or totally eliminated. This invention was what worked for in the garbage disposal problem of Lagawe when the landpiles were filled up to he brim. The church collected the biodegradables from the market and converted it to useful compost. (Story on these next issue.)

Daniel's shredder can be ordered and bought for a mere P20,000, a lot lesser than other patented machines that does the same work. So what next I asked?

There is the micro tiller he said. Looking at children and women in the fields who harrow the rice paddies with carabaos or big tillers, it was difficult for them to maneuver the beast or the machine so he thought of making a tiller in a smaller scale. It is lightweight that 2 people can carry it to the paddies and handy enough for women to push around. It runs on gasoline though, but the tilling job is faster than doing it manually or with the carabao. F

or a man didn’t attend formal school, he fascinated me with his words and terms. At one point during our interview he talked about turbines and water elevations and pressure and. My turn to gawk, my lower jaw dropping, trying to comprehend the gist of his explanation on this next invention he did, a micro turbine.

Whew! Electricity is as good as gold these days, and yet in Ifugao some remote villages are still unlit to this day. He said this may solve some of that problem although he has yet to introduce it to the public unlike the other two projects which are already running and being used by those who have availed.

So who said only the learned could make a difference? Little ones in their own little ways can to. For me I have always had in mind this quote, "A brain with lots of ideas is useless without the hands that work it to become." Luckily for Daniel, unschooled maybe but he has both the brain and the working hands. email: twilight_glo@yahoo.com