The simple technologies below are helping farmers add value to their produce before taking them to market thereby increasing their earnings.
Peanut butter in three easy steps
This machine showcased at an expo at the University of Eldoret is made up of three parts, namely the flour miller, the decorticator and grinder, enabling one to add value to the peanuts. To begin with, dried peanuts are first roasted and then placed in a shade until they swell and crack, making it easier for removal of the cover. The nuts are then placed in the decorticator for the removal of the coat, thereafter crashed to make flour before ending up in the grinder to make butter in a process that takes at most 15 minutes.
Grain winnowers and threshers
This machine, developed at Moi University, threshes and winnows millet. Once the crop is thoroughly dried, it is fed into the machine composed of rollers threshes and winnows the produce, according to Stephen Omoga, a technologist from the institution. The electricity or manual powered machine has a fan and mortar, with the former blowing wind onto the threshed grains to separate them from the chaff.
From Egerton University there is a portable sorghum thresher that not only threshes the grain but also polishes and winnows. Dr Njue Musa from the university notes that the machine works like the other threshers thus dry sorghum or green grams should be used. It threshes 300 to 400kg of sorghum or green grams per hour, an equivalent to work done by 10 people in a day.
Solar dryer
Made up of glass, the solar dryer developed at University of Eldoret is designed to prolong the shelf-life of produce like vegetables and fruits. The gadget has an inlet that allows air into the chamber; the air passes through some black surface and granites.
The granite increases the intensity of the heat to which then passes through a funnel to reach the produce. A glass on the top helps creates a greenhouse effect in the cabin.
Fall armyworm trap
The fall armyworm remains the biggest threat to maize so far and for the last few years, it has decimated acres upon acres of the crop across the country. Researchers at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation have developed a pheromone trap in which they place a hormone that mimics the female armyworm hence attracting the male into the trap.
Aggrey Mugita, a researcher at Kalro, notes the pest is normally active in the evening, which is the best time to use the trap, therefore, minimizing breeding as the female lays sterile eggs. According to him, a farmer requires four traps for each acre and the gadgets should be placed on the farm as soon as the crops germinate.
Seed dresser
Seed coating with hormones and other chemicals to ward off insects or diseases has become an easy way to guarantee germination.
Nasirembe Wanjala, an agricultural engineer at the Kalro, Katumani, notes that many smallholders re-use their farm-saved seeds since it may be expensive to buy new ones. Such farmers according to him can benefit from the seed dresser by coating the seeds with pesticides or hormones. To use the machine, one opens the cover of the drum and then puts in the grains and measures the amount of chemicals to use and adds in.
This is followed with the powering of the engine to enable the 50kg capacity drum to rotate as it coats the seeds. In about 30 seconds, all the seeds will be uniformly coated by the machine. They should then be removed and dried in the sun before they are planted.
Pyrethrum solar dryer
This dryer curbs the fermenting of losing of content in pyrethrum flowers. It is made from wooden frame, polythene material of 500-1,000 gauge inclined at 10oC for ease of water draining. One places the flowers in the gadget as soon as they are picked from the field to stop fermentation, according to George Juma from the Pyrethrum Processing Company of Kenya Ltd. Juma notes that when the flowers are dried directly in the sun, it lowers the pyrethrin content, eating into farmers’ income.
Automatic solar pump
Jackton Amahati of Sigalagala Polytechnic, who developed he machine, says the gadget taps solar energy, stores it into a battery and then using it to pump water. Another gadget that makes up the machine is a sensor that detects the moisture content of the soil before sending signal that triggers irrigation.
Solar grain dryer
This dryer has an air inlet, drying chamber, a solar storage facility and a chimney, according to Edwin Wairimu, the developer and student of Diploma in Applied Science at Sigalagala Polytechnic. Air gets into the dryer through a natural convection process and is then heated as it passes through the storage facility.
As it interacts with moisture from the grains, it is partially cooled before reaching the drying chamber where the grain is placed.
The free flow of hot air hastens the drying of grains as the air gets out of the machine through an outlet.
The moisture content in the grain determines how fast it dried but generally, some six hours are enough to thoroughly dry the maize or beans unlike relying on the sun which takes days. According to Wairimu, the dryer protects grains like sorghum, maize and beans causes of post-harvest losses including pests, rain and dust.
Dairy feed baler
Many farmers struggle to make a Total Mixed Ratio (TMR) dairy feed, but this machine by engineers from engineers from Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation makes the work easier.
Dubbed the TMR compactor, it compresses fodder grasses like Boma Rhodes, lucerne and brachiaria alongside other ingredients to make a quality feed block.
Ludovicus Okitoi, the developer of the machine, says it can be powered by electricity or manually, with the farmer making feeds for sale.
To make the feed block, the fodder grass is harvested, dried and then sliced into small pieces. Therefore, it should be mixed with molasses and salt before it is compacted enabling a farmer store feeds for the long-term.