A simple solar crop drying and pasteurizing system appropriate for smallholder and subsistence farmers in tropical and subtropical regions

Abstract

Open sun drying is the predominant process used for food preservation by smallholder and subsistence farmers (SHSFs), and their families, globally constituting about 2 billion people on about 475 million farms. The major problems with this process are the slow, unreliable speed of completion, rain-caused loss of vital food sources, risks from mycotoxin accumulation, environmental contamination, and loss of nutritional quality. SHSFs represent the poorest and least educated human demographic, whose survival is largely ignored by Governments, untouched by international aid programs, and with limited access to basic utilities. Solar drying systems can greatly improve the preservation of safe and nutritious food, but current systems deployed put this technology beyond the reach of the demographic which needs it most. Here, our objective was to develop the technology for the simplest low-cost drying system, which would minimize all risk factors, particularly eliminate mycotoxin accumulation, and which could be practically deployed by SHSFs.

Keywords:

• Low-cost
• solar dryer
• pasteurizer
• food security
• smallholder farmers
• mycotoxins

Acknowledgments

The authors thank many unnamed SHSFs who graciously allowed us to observe their open-sun food drying over many years in many countries and shared their accounts of the risks and loss of food security associated with this drying process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).