Machinery

: 30 January 2019; Hits: 6310

Organisation launches online seed informational tool to enable farmers access critical data in one click

seed catalogue roadmap A capture of the ICRISAT digital seed roadmap.

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), an international agricultural research organization has launched modern digital seed ‘catalog’ and seed ‘roadmap’ tool to enable famers access information about the quality and availability of seeds in one click.

This innovative tool will ultimately enable farmers in several African countries to access seed varietal information quickly and help them plan seed production over a long period.

The online catalog provides information on all seed varieties available nationally and regionally over a long period.

It comes at a time reports indicate that in sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers still face challenges in obtaining good quality seeds on time, mainly due to lack of access to information about them.

To address this need, ICRISAT’s Digital Agriculture team, as part of the HOPE II and Tropical Legumes III projects, has created an online seed catalog and a digital seed roadmap tool.

At the national level, seed roadmaps enable governments, small-scale seed producers and the private sector to plan, produce, monitor and provide quality seed to smallholders, no matter what the locality.

Both the seed catalog and digital seed roadmap are now available to actors and stakeholders in the seed system.

However, no tool is effective until the stakeholders actively adopt it and use it as part of their regular tasks.

With this in mind, ICRISAT, through the various projects, is organising a series of workshops to demonstrate the use of the tool to various seed system stakeholders including extension workers and staff of research institutes and seed companies.

“The common goal is access to quality seeds, in adequate quantity and in a timely manner by smallholders, which is important for the transformation of agriculture in Africa,” said Dr. Aboubacar Touré, ICRISAT sorghum breeder.

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: 28 January 2019; Hits: 5879

A social enterprise develops solar cooling facility to save fresh produce from undue spoilage

kenyas freshbox introduces solar powered refrigeration to east african markets FreshBox enterprise cool storage fcility. The enterprise is on a mission to about 53 per cent of food which is wasted in East Africa. Photo courtesy.

A Nairobi based social enterprise, FreshBox , has developed a solar-powered, walk-in refrigeration facility that can hold over 2,100kg of fruits and vegetables to improve the produce shelf life enhancing farmers and vendors income at a time reports indicate huge wastages due to lack of proper storage.

According to a December 2015 report by Research Solutions Africa on Fresh Vegetables Market in Kenya, market space and facilities to handle food products in many markets in both urban and rural areas are insufficient, resulting in high levels of waste and spoilage.

The report further states that during peak seasons most farmers sell most of their fresh produce at a throw away price while a substantial quantity also goes to waste because it is highly perishable.

FreshBox is now reaching farmers and traders that previously have not had access to refrigeration facilities and services to help prevent the spoilage by increasing the longevity of a fruit or vegetable’s selling period by up to 950 per cent depending on the fruit or vegetable.

“Our cold storage system can provide more consistent revenues to the retailers in produce markets and provide more consistent availability of nutritious produce,” said John Mbindyo, FreshBox CEO.

According to Mbindyo, the brain behind this innovation, vendors in various markets were previously forced to restock their supply regularly because excess produce would spoil after two or three days.

“We put our large-scale cooling unit to the test with a pilot project in a Nairobi fruits and vegetables market. After we installed the refrigerator in the market, the unit was fully booked within a day. Over the course of the next three months, the pilot refrigerator achieved a 100 per cent utilization rate.”

Since then the enterprise has been developing and manufacturing a larger, industrial-sized prototype to meet the rising demand from customers all over the country.

“We designed a simple and efficient model that would self-regulate temperature, thus limiting the demand for electricity. Designed to be sourced and manufactured locally, the unit has the additional capacity to run on solar power, significantly increasing opportunities for penetration into rural markets.”

The facilities are designed primarily to use solar energy as most parts of the country experience frequent electricity outages and sporadic breakdowns making solar energy an increasingly utilised tool in sun-rich areas such as our retail market locations.

RELATED ARTICLE: Simple Method to reduce storage losses in beans

A refrigeration facility can hold approximately 2100-2800 kg of produce, which is about 70 58.5x40x24 centimeter crates.

“We have also developed smaller size unit for the individual needs of the markets and vendors in which we work. We believe that our solution can adequately fit the needs of the market,” said Mbindyo.

Among other produce that can be preserved by the facilities include fresh fruits, vegetables, flower, fish, meat, and dairy products.

FreshBox products and services are found at City Park Market in Nairobi with plans underway to build additional solutions across the greater Nairobi area.

RELATED ARTICLE: Low cost storage facility stems food waste

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: 27 December 2018; Hits: 6541

Varsity student invents bio-gas incubator, looking for funds to commercialise the apparatus

IncubatorSolarSilasJumaMachakosShowbyLabanRobert

A student from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) has invented a bio-gas incubator which could be more efficient and affordable as compared to electric, solar and kerosene incubators which are already in the market.

While the design of the incubator is affordable, portable, user friendly and easy to maintain, Shawn Kasoa, 23, the brain behind the incubator says he is unable to mass-produce it for the market.

“The main challenge I face is lack of resources to produce adequate incubators for the already existing demands from farmers. One incubator that can hold 200 eggs goes for Sh50,000,” he said.

How bio-gas incubator works

The incubator has four air ducts on each side that allows circulation of air. The egg tray is held in a rotating position that is manually operated to ensure that all parts of the eggs are heated. The egg tray can contain 200 eggs at one go and is rotated twice a day with average humidity value of 56.46 per cent in the incubator.

The renewable energy student says turning prevents the embryo from sticking to the shell membranes, which happens when the eggs are left in one position for too long. The gas heating element is controlled manually to stabilise the temperatures within the incubator.

“If the temperature stays at either extreme for several days, the hatch may be reduced. Overheating is much more critical than under-heating, it will speed up rate of development causing abnormal embryos,” he adds.

Efficiency

According to Kasoa, the incubator could be better compared to electric ones that rely on electricity and which can cause farmers big losses in case of power outages other than the power bills that are incurred.

“Power outages during incubation results to lower hatch rates that can affect quality of the chicks produced further reducing farmers’ earnings,” said Kasoa.

“This egg incubator is best-suited for farmers who produce chicks especially for sale as it allows them use the homemade renewable energy which mostly ends up unused in the farms and which provides steady power to meet high hatching rates.”

In addition, he rates the incubator’s efficiency above solar incubators that rely on sunlight and can be affected in case of low or no sunlight energy. Kerosene incubators also come with every time fuel bills that may hike production costs.

RELATED ARTICLE: Solar incubator saves farmer hatching costs

Bio-gas incubators can be used to hatch the eggs of poultry such as ducks, turkeys, geese, guinea fowls and ostriches and this further helps the parent birds to continue laying eggs without destruction.

“A broody hen can hatch just about 10-12 eggs at once in 21 days, which reduces its productivity as it takes time to incubate and hatch the chicks. Relying on this natural type of incubation, with a growing human population, is folly, hence the need for artificial incubation. This way, a female bird concentrates on laying eggs while the incubation is done artificially,” said Kasoa.

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