Design, development and techniques for controlling grains post-harvest losses with metal silo for small and medium scale farmers

Abstract

There are many challenges facing small scale farmers especially in Africa and other developing countries that lead to grains post-harvest losses. Amongst these are inadequate storage facilities, rodents, insects and birds. It was predicted that the world’s population will increase to about 9.1 billion people by the year 2050 and most of this increase will occur in developing countries. Hence, the need of investing much to the agricultural sector is necessary in order to produce more food to feed the world. Furthermore, increasing agricultural productivity must go hand-in-hand with improved storage in order to reduce post-harvest losses. Promoting small scale agriculture is the key to achieving food security in developing countries. In this work, metal silo technology for small and medium scale farming was developed for more comfortable and effective grains protection. Air-tightness of the silo was achieved by adding rubber stopper under grains-inlet and discharge lids. Locking points on grains inlet and discharge covers with padlock was designed. Larger size of this silo was modernized to be mobile facilitated with wheels-metal-frame stand for easy repositioning, which replaced the ordinary method of concrete stands and pallets. Cheaper methods of grains moisture control, cleaning and safe emptying of the silo were also provided. Metal silo can be fabricated as cylindrical, square or rectangular prism in shape, also in different sizes of 50 to 3,000 kg holding capacity of grain such as rice, maize, wheat, guinea-corn, millet and beans.

Key words: Metal silo, small scale farming, food security, post-harvest losses, developing countries, Africa.