Magdalena Villaruz

As we continue to celebrate Filipino Heritage Month, I wanted to highlight a prolific inventor from Iolio, Philippines.

Rice is often grown in wet fields, where mud and water can prevent and slow down the tilling of soil. Magdalena Villaruz was sick of her farm losing time and money because tractors were getting bogged down in the mud. So she came up with a solution. A floating, hand operated tractor.

Magdalena created a hand tractor with a concave “shell” that allowed the machine to float on top of the mud and water of her farm’s fields. This concept is a lot like the way a turtle’s shell, filled with air, provides buoyancy. Appropriately, Magdalena called her invention the “Turtle Power Tiller.”

Having been educated in Commerce, Magdalena quickly patented her invention and began to sell tillers to farmers throughout the Philippines, as well as other parts of Southeast Asia and Africa.

Despite some opportunistic attempts at copycat products, Magdalena pushed for her intellectual property rights, maintaining ownership of the Turtle Power Tiller as well as many other patents. The long list of Magdalena’s inventions includes rice threshers, corn shellers, and water pumps.

Magdalena has won many awards for her agricultural products and owns a very successful international business called SV Agro Industries. Though she is a major player in the Philippines science and technology world, she happily still lives in her rural hometown.