Out of hundreds of applicants, the EasyDry M500– a portable grain dryer developed through ACDI/VOCA and ASI’s AflaSTOP project– won Fourth Place and a $4,000 cash prize at the 1st All Africa Postharvest Technologies and Innovation Challenge. The Challenge showcased the best emerging post-harvest technologies and innovations with potential for scale-up in Africa, focusing on those already in testing and market-ready stages. First prize was awarded to UC-Davis for their Moisture Card; Second prize to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for their Cassava Peel Processer; and Third prize also went to IITA for AflaSAFE.
As one of the top ten technologies, the EasyDry M500 was highlighted in front of an audience of more than 150 people and the EasyDry M500 Team was given time to pitch the innovation before investors in attendance. The EasyDry M500 will now be highlighted in a booklet that will be published by the Postharvest Congress, which was hosted by the University of Nairobi in partnership with a consortium of Kenyan universities, research and development organizations, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, and the World Food Preservation Center.
The EasyDry M500 was also recently featured on “The Next Frontier,” a special program on the nightly news shown by the Kenya Television Network (KTN). The show explained how the machine dries maize to minimize losses caused by aflatoxin.
The EasyDry M500 is an open source technology, available for commercial adoption. It is a highly mobile, portable maize dryer targeted at servicing smallholder farmers. It lowers maize moisture from 20% to 13.5% in 3 hours, with the capacity to dry three 500 kg batches per day in one location. It has been piloted in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.
For more on the EasyDry M500, visit www.easydry.org.
