Egerton University is promoting a new technology for preserving vegetable products pioneered by the university in partnership with Mukebo Self-Help Group.
According to its innovators, the technology, dubbed solar drier, will go a long way in curbing food shortages, avoiding a glut in the market, fighting food insecurity, and encouraging farmers to venture into agribusiness.
The solar drier is a simple greenhouse-like structure that uses solar energy to dry farm produce which is later packed and stored for future use or sale. According to a Senior Technologist at the Department of Crops, Horticulture and Soil Sciences, Dr. Tom Owino, almost 90 percent of farmers in the country depend on rain to grow their crops which negatively affects supply.
Owino said that farm products flood markets during the rainy season leading to low prices. The opposite, he said, happens during dry spells. “This is brought about by the majority of farmers depending heavily on rain to grow their crops. Our new technology tries to combat this menace as well as turn small-scale farming into agribusiness,” he said.
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