Traditional Skills in the Modern World

About Tillers International

Since 1981, we have taught traditional skills such as farming with draft animals, blacksmithing, woodworking, and more, in the U.S. and abroad. Our classes can be used for personal enjoyment or professional growth, but our focus is on the classes as a means of international development.

Internationally

Our primary mission is to collaborate with small-scale farmers in developing countries to improve food security concerns in their communities. We work with groups like the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification and Appropriate Scale Mechanization Consortium (ASMC) alongside partners such as Michigan State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, North Carolina A&T State University, the University of Nazi Boni in Burkina Faso, and the University of Thies in Senegal.

As the ASMC phrases it, we work towards “mechanized technologies that are technically, environmentally, and economically appropriate for use by smallholder farmers. Such technologies sustainably reduce poverty among smallholders (small-scale farmers) by contributing to enhanced labor and increased land productivity.

​The overall objective of this project is to integrate social, economic, and environmental impacts, as we work towards sustainably intensifying smallholder farmers’ cropping systems and on-farm operations through mechanization.

We also collaborate with leading manufacturers of farming equipment for the Amish community, most notably Pioneer Equipment, given their expertise with equipment for draft animals.

In the USA

Classes at our U.S. site include farming with draft horses, woodworking, blacksmithing, coopering (barrel making), tinsmithing, timber framing, toolmaking, and other traditional skills.

Our international tools and methods take inspiration from a time in the United States where few had access to electricity or motors. We look at tools and methods common to people from around 1860 to 1920 when most rural Americans were “off-grid.” As a result, we attract many people to our classes that are interested in history, the use of hand tools, nostalgia, and a sense of accomplishment of doing something ‘the old-school way.’

We partner with many historic and professional organizations including The Timber Framer’s Guild, The Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums (ALFAM), Midwest Ox Drovers Association (MODA), Michigan Artist Blacksmith Association (MABA), and others.

Your Support Matters

We can use your support now more than ever. For hundreds of years, if not thousands of years, craftsmen and women relied on their knowledge and skills with hand tools and animals to transform their communities. Power tools and modern tractors have all but erased those skills in developed countries, but in developing countries — and in the hearts and minds of today’s passionate artisans — those ancient skills are still invaluable. Support the sharing of those skills by making a donation, or by signing up for one of our 2021 classes today.

 

INTERNATIONAL

Tillers International currently conducts hands-on trainings and consultations in international rural villages and
larger population centers. 

EDUCATION

When you take a class at Tillers International,
you help to make a difference in the world. We offer numerous classes throughout the year.