Summer Plans! (AJ Logan: Senior, Mechanical Engineering)

This summer I will be traveling to Nyeri, Kenya to manufacture and sell low cost solar dryers to small scale farmers. In Kenya, most people are living on about $2 per day, and 80% of the work force is comprised of farmers working on less than 5 acres of land. Unfortunately about 50% of the food that these farmers grow will spoil before it can be sold. Drying food is a great way to increase the shelf life of the product, and it can be sold for 3 times the price of fresh foods. Now, the common drying process is open air drying, which is slow going and leads to high amounts of contamination. Our solar dryers can dry more efficiently and block out most dirt and contaminants from the air. There are some dryers currently on the market in this area, but they typically cost between $500 and $2,000. Our dryers cost about $120. We are hoping to set up a sustainable business for entrepreneurs in Africa who are interested in learning how to build and maintain these dryers for the farmers. While I am over there I will be doing work building and marketing these dryers as well as research how well they work. The group going over also gets to have some fun. We will be going to national parks for Safari rides and we get to visit an African animals petting zoo! I'm very excited to have the opportunity to travel internationally to implement this project.