See the comments on my "I love the smell...." post for the questions....
Animals could be used to perform the cold pressing. In India they use a ghani, which is basically a giant mortar and pestle which is powered by animals. However it's not really used here in Zambia. The problems with animals is they can be expensive to keep, and so you'll see that only better off farmers will use animal power, while the poorer ones will still work by hand, most small scale oil cold pressing (for mungongo and other oil seed) is done by hand. There are also two types of hydraulic cold pressers being used that I'm aware of. One is basically a hydraulic bottle jack in the place of the screw in the manual presser, the other uses a hydraulic cylinder powered by a hydraulic power unit (electric).
As it stands now, the project is leaning towards using the cracker on a commercial scale. The assistance to rural people will come from the income they can receive by selling their collected nuts before or after cracking them. That is not to say that the cracked nuts can't be pressed by individuals for their own benefit, but the goal of this project is the commercialization for the oil. Currently the industry is basically individuals producing oil for personal use, local markets, or small quantity export.
Electricity may or may not be available in all villages, therefore this machine is powered by a hand crank, with the option open that a pulley put on the shaft to power it via electric motor or a diesel engine.
The nut is available in huge quantities I am told, as there are entire forests of the tree... and since nothing eats the nuts, it won't be taking a food source away from any animals (just might have to let the elephants eat the fruit first). Part of the project will be ensuring that collection is done in a sustainable manner, meaning that enough nuts are left on the ground to form the next generation of trees etc.
I think I answered all of them
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