In 2013 a group went to the Gambia for the same project as ours. In the time being, they built two Solar Dryers. They sold one of the dryers to My Farm, the other to Kairoh Garden. Despite their good design, there where also some flaws.
First the Dryers where to expensive for the local people because they used a lot of expensive materials like steel. This lead to the second imperfection which was that the Dryers weren’t sustainable. They used a lot of imported materials. Despite this the dryers broke very fast.
Our mission: To design, build and transfer knowledge about sustainable solar powered food dryers in cooperation with the local population to overcome the hungry season.
This results in developing a durable solar dryer with use of local materials. The capacity should be higher and the costs should be lower than those of previous generations. This needs to be done in cooperation and co-production with the local population, making use of traditional knowledge. The know-how of building of this second generation solar dryer needs to be transferred to local farmers, NGOs and vocational training centers. At the same time the market needs to be explored to ascertain how the marketing of the produce can lead to an increase of income and to business opportunities for the introduction of the solar dryer.
These solar dryers will not be given to the local population. The solar dryers which are build will be sold via Kairoh Garden.
At the end of our internship we will write a report of the results. This report can be used for anyone who would like to know more about a solar dryer, but is especially made for the next group of students who will continue the solar dryer project in Gambia.