Small-scale producers in low and middle income countries lose large fractions of their crops post-harvest.
While industrial solutions to post harvest drying and storage of crops exist, they are not usually suitable for-small scale producers, and few solutions are designed for these farmers, even though they are more exposed to risks arising from traditional drying methods.
We piloted a low cost, small-size open air dryer offered by the company Amaizz among chilli growers in Andhra Pradesh, India, comparing its performance to the traditional sun-drying method, in order to determine whether it is financially beneficial to the farmer. The product was found to suffer from many technical problems and did not perform well in the field. We found no evidence of the fresh-air dryer expediting the drying process. Slight improvements in quality was far from sufficient to cover the costs of the technology.