The fonio husking machine was invented by Sanoussi Diakité, a Senegalese mechanical engineer.
"For hundreds of years, African women have carried out the painstaking task of preparing fonio by pounding and threshing a grain and sand mixture with a pestle and mortar.
After one hour of this tedious work, only two kilograms of fonio are available for consumption and fifteen liters of water are needed to remove the sand.
Diakité's solution was a 50-kilogram (110 lb) device that gently abrades the surface of the seed before passing through a rotating mechanism, which removes the husks.
[4] Diakité's device is an example of appropriate technology, because of its ability to solve a significant problem in developing countries and the ease with which it can be manufactured.