The food crisis in most African countries is one of the issues that most concern human rights organizations in the world. But the invention of a Ugandan engineering student could revolutionize food preservation, providing an alternative to solving a centuries-old problem.
Lawrence Okettayot, 23, has developed a device capable of dehydrating food in a few hours, allowing it to last for months. Similar to a refrigerator, the sparky dryer (bright dryer, in literal translation) is a food dehydrator that uses biofuel as raw material.
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The use of organic material comes from the reality that few African farmers have access to electricity. The biofuel burns with zero carbon emissions and is tested on his family's farm. To get an idea of the functionality of the equipment, it can dehydrate 10kg of mango in two hours using 2kg of fuel.
According to the young man, “in Uganda, 80% of the population does not have access to electricity. They can put anything in their garden, anything that is not currently useful.” Okettayot explains that the device converts toxins into good gases, allowing zero carbon dioxide emissions.
Lawrence's initiative comes to tackle Uganda's food waste dilemma. The country receives more refugees than any other in Africa and, despite food production exceeding consumption, malnutrition statistics are alarming. One out of three school-aged children has nothing to eat during the day.
The data was presented by the World Food Program. Even so, 40% of the fruits and vegetables produced in Uganda end up being discarded. The device is sold to other farmers who come to Okettayot and his team and inform them of their intention to use it. The purchase price is around USD 80.
Faced with a scenario of extreme poverty and hunger presented in African countries, businessmen have also carried out studies in order to solve the humanitarian crisis. Nigerian businessman Nnaemeka Ikegwoonu dedicates his life to analyzing agricultural issues in his homeland.
His latest project focuses on cold food storage. According to Ikegwoonu, around 90 million small farmers are unable to store their produce at low temperatures. For this reason, he has dedicated himself to the development of a mobile device powered by solar energy.
Nigeria is one of the biggest tomato producers in West Africa but more than 50% of the crop is lost due to lack of cold storage. “So, we created cold rooms powered by solar energy that can extend the shelf life of foods by up to 21 days”, explains the entrepreneur.
Solar panels are mounted on the roof and power high-capacity batteries. The unit uses about 1kW of energy under a daily fixed rate payment for each box of food stored. ColdHubs, the name given to the equipment, have reduced farmers' losses by up to 80%, according to the entrepreneur's estimates.
Today, refrigerators are scattered across farms and markets in Nigeria. But, Ikegwoonu doesn't intend to stop there. Despite receiving requests from all over the world, the entrepreneur's goal is to disseminate the project to all developing countries. With this, it intends to increase production to 20,000 units in the coming years.