By Fred Deya
In the dusty Uthini village in Kenya’s Machakos County, a group of 25 women are converting solar waves into usable energy that dries fruits for commercial purposes.
The Kenya’s Akamba community has for decades been experiencing perennial dry spell with only hope on fruits which normally outstand drought.
However, nearly 40 percent of fruits grown in the area go to waste during the peak cycle due to lack of storage facilities and ready market.
Many farmers who grow mangoes, paw paws and bananas in large scale that do well in the area were bound to experience challenges due to poor storage and unavailability of ready market, leading to waste.
“The project of drying fruits through solar waves was a by the way project after a group of officials from USAID in collaboration with Kenya Agricultural and livestock Research organization (KALRO) Katumani Machakos saw the lucrative job we were doing”, said Mary Mwendwa, group treasurer.
The promising group dubbed Utithini Women Orphan Child Care Group immerged in 2001 with only three women who volunteered to help orphaned children in Utithini village redefine their lives.
Mary said that the women were helping orphans by providing clothing, shelters, food and eventually education support.
By 2004, the group members increased to 25 which supported 86 orphans that continued well until 2010 when another opportunity cropped in through their hard work.
The group received greenhouse-like polythene paper and metallic drying tables from USAID. The drier uses solar waves to dry fruits and vegetable which can be stored for a longer time.
Alternatively, the technology has curbed the wastage of fruits on the point of harvest.
“We process the fruits and vegetables and package them for sale as a way of adding value. The fruits are chopped into thin sizes and kept in the drier early in the morning to dry throughout the day,” Mwendwa said.
When asked about what they do with the dried fruits, Mary said that the group gets their income through selling of the dried fruits to some supermarkets in the big cities like Nairobi.
The group’s reliable customer is Azuri Company in Nairobi which purchases the dried mango fruits in large quantity for mango Cripps.
The fruits packed in one kilos packets goes for Sh 700 (about $7) and paw paw at Sh 650 ($6.5). Mary said that they do not incur transportation expenses as their customers come for the dried fruits at their door step.
Each farmer grows vegetables in their respective farms and takes to the processing plant. This is done in every plantation period. The same applied to those with mango plantations.
We visit the homesteads and ensure that members are growing the vegetables as agreed. If we say we need 20kg of vegetables from each member that is what we collect. The group also buys from local farmers as a way of encouraging local farming of the fruits,” said Mwendwa
According to Mwendwa, the project has helped to advance the helping of the orphans because they also engage with Kenya’s corporative bank that support at least two orphaned children in their education from primary level to college.
Teresa Mwendwa, the group’s chair who is also the principle at the local high school said that the group also uses the drier to dehumidify vegetables like kales, Kunde and Amaranth (indigenous vegetables).
The kilo of Amaranth flour sells at Sh 150 ($15) which is the local market price. Therefore the solar drier is lucrative because it do a massive job for no cost.
At the beginning, the group faced many challenges including lack of knowledge on how to use the solar drier, but now the women have embraced the technology.
“Sometimes we would put the fruits and vegetables on the drier in the evening and leave the products to dry overnight something that would compromise the quality of the final product which would go bad after a few days,” Mwendwa said.
However, with some training from Usaid, the group has since learnt to put their product to dry in the morning when there is little or no cloud cover for better results.
Mwendwa said the US agency has also bought a flour mill for the group to use in milling the Amaranth flour.
