Home Funded Projects A smart solar dryer, now drying coffee and cassava
Transforming Agriculture
A smart solar dryer, now drying coffee and cassava
An automatically controlled solar dryer adopted for cassava and ginger — and by Lutheran World Relief for Arabica coffee in Kasese.
Sun-drying fails the moment the weather turns. This automatically controlled dryer keeps going — and entrepreneurs have already put it to work.
The challenge
Over 30% of Uganda's perishable produce is lost after harvest, largely because most farmers have no affordable way to preserve it. Few have electricity, and simple solar dryers stall in cloudy weather, unable to hold the steady temperature and humidity that quality drying needs.
Most are also too small for commercial volumes.
The approach
The team designed a hybrid, dual-heat-source commercial solar dryer with an automatic control system that monitors and regulates temperature and humidity — so drying continues at peak harvest even when the sun is poor.
The project also turned processing waste into value, investigating biogas and vermicompost from fruit waste.
Lutheran World Relief has adapted the dryer for Arabica coffee drying in Kasese.
Results & impact
Entrepreneurs have adopted the dryer for cassava, amaranth seed, ginger and vegetables, and the team partnered with Lutheran World Relief, which adapted it for Arabica coffee drying in the Kasese region.
On the waste side, vermicompost from pineapple peels produced a nutrient-rich fertiliser that outperformed conventional treatment on maize — a second product from the same project.
This research was funded by the Government of Uganda through the Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund — one of a growing directory of projects turning national investment into real-world results.
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