The use of solar energy for yam processing and preservation in Nsukka South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

The global food crisis calls for aggressive food production campaign as well as drying and storage of some of these food items so produced.This paper illustrates how free and inexhaustible supply of solar energy was used to dry yam pellets, thereby preserving the yam in powdered form for the lean periods. The dehydrator used is a solar dryer, using air as a drying medium and requiring minimal electrical power for its operation. Yam was used for the drying experiments because of its economic value in Nigeria and other African countries. The average drying time for yam pellets was 6 hours, (between 11.00am – 5.00pm during the months of November – April) .The author succeeded in producing approximately 1kg of yam flour from a simple solar dryer daily. Construction of the Solar Energy dryer and drying of the yam pellets was carried out at Nsukka in South Eastern Nigeria. Very fine flour of various species of yam was produced. Average moisture loss was 66.5% and 53.8% respectively for the two yam specimens that was dried in the solar dryer. The solar dryer produced daily average 1kg flour daily respectively. The Solar dryer with its average capacity of drying 1kg of flour can serve a family of four persons for a single meal. Industrial production of dried yam flour can be carried out by building larger type of the solar energy dryer based on the same principle like the prototype used for this study.

Keywords: Solar Energy; Solar dryer; food production; storage, preservation