Eight Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) engaged in cereal farming in Lugari Subcounty, Kakamega have each received a solar bubble dryer to guard against post-harvest losses.
They include; Mulembe CBO and Mbagara Farmers in Mautuma Ward, Lumakanda Maize Producers and Mercy CBO in Lumakanda Ward, Koromait Nafaka Jasho in Chekalini Ward and Baco CBO, Marakusi Mali Shambani and Muungano CBO in Lugari Ward.
Speaking during the handover ceremony outside Lumakanda agriculture office, the Subcounty Agriculture Officer Kakai Wekesa lauded Kenya Cereal Enhancement Programme - Climate Resilient Agricultural Livelihoods (KCEP-CRAL), for coming to the rescue of cereal farmers.
“Lugari is predominantly a maize growing zone. Farmers have been incurring a lot of losses when there is too much rainfall during the harvesting period, as drying the maize and other cereals becomes a challenge,” Wekesa said.
“With the bubble dryers losses will be minimised, they will ease the cumbersome drying exercise. Once you put maize into the dryer, it will take the shortest time possible to completely dry depending on its moisture content. Once dry the farmers will use a moisture meter to measure the moisture content,” he said.
Wekesa urged the beneficiary CBOs to make good use of the bubble dryers and guard them against damage.
Rodgers Alinda from Sky Bold, the suppliers of the solar bubble dryers said each dryer has the capacity to dry between 500 and 600 kilogrammes of maize within two to three hours depending on the moisture content.
“The bubble dryers are solar operated hence depend on sun rays. It is not a must for the sun to be hot for them to operate,” he said.
Hudson Lomosi from Koromait Nafaka Jasho CBO and Lumakanda Maize Producers secretary Soul Ombuge lauded the Agriculture Ministry and KCEP-CRAL for the donation.
They said the bubble dryers are user-friendly and they will now be able to protect their maize from rotting.
“As maize farmers we have suffered for many years. Drying our maize harvests when there is too much rain has been a problem for long. The bubble dryers will be a great relief to us as we shall not suffer any more post-harvest losses,” Lomosi said.
The solar bubble dryer is a tunnel-type solar drying product designed to dry agricultural products while protecting them from intermittent rainfall and unpredictable weather during the drying process.
With the ‘greenhouse effect’, the solar bubble-dryer traps solar radiation and heats up the commodity inside, vaporises pushing out its moisture content through the exhaust port.
