Tertia Uitenweerde is an Agricultural Engineer involved in a variety of projects, mostly in the field, where she does evaluations and surveys of irrigation schemes, (Elandsfontein, Olifants River and Badplaas), and viability studies of two irrigation schemes at Sand River for the ‘Save the Sand’ project. She compiles reports on soil moisture censors and has completed many projects concerning the small farmer, on topics such as the use of small erosion structures and poultry housing.

Liezell Zweers is a Chemical Engineer who has done intensive work on the design, construction and testing of a wood-gas generator; research on corrosion of fences in eight different areas in South Africa; the design, construction, testing and demonstration of small-scale food processing lines; and investigations into iron and manganese precipitation in irrigation systems and the purification of biogas by means of chemicals. Currently she is involved in the investigation into the viability of plastics in agriculture and the viability of agricultural products for industrial application, i.e. the motor industry. Theresa Siebert is an Engineering Technician, whose work mainly consists of the manufacturing and testing of electronic circuits and apparatus, as well as, to a lesser degree, the development of electronic circuits. She is the one entrusted with the task of the use and programming of PLC’s, and does the purchase, programming, operation and maintenance of the PLC systems currently in use at the ARC-ILI.

She is inter alia, involved in the manometer level control; the development, manufacturing and testing of a seed counter; the RF Telemetric, which involves the development of a security system; the manufacture of an electronic ignition system for a biogas water pump; and does research on the use of biodegradable agricultural products in the industry. She is also one of the few women registered with the South African Engineering Council (ECSA).
 

Maretha Bonthuys holds a National Diploma in Food Technology, and mostly does research on and development of small-scale processing plants and processes. She was involved in the development of the small-scale animal feed mill which was patented by the ARC-ILI, and is currently working on Agrelek’s Food Database, which includes the investigation and data input of food scientific information in the database. It deals with the processing of all food products. She is also involved in the training of small and upcoming farmers on the application of better farming practices and the processing of residual farm products in order to add value.