Accordingly, the Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) Project promotes their uptake in the East African Region, as part of its overall climate smart services integration pathway to building resilient food value chains.
This is achieved through continued awareness raising on the value of RE and EE, capacity building of agriSMEs and cooperatives, organisation of cross-learning events and technology demonstrations, as well as giving business development support (e.g., energy audit services) to project validated business cases.
Impact
It is worthy noting that drying as a post-harvest process for enhancing quality of seeds and grains by reducing moisture to suitable standards for storage has been one of the critical areas of investment by most of the CRAFT’s supported agribusinesses, since majority have invested in drying tarpaulins for small holder farmers for improved quality.
Whereas SHFs can deliver quality dried grains to collection centres that can be compromised by others that are not compliant, one business case, OKEBA Ltd has been able to ensure uniformity in moisture content after drying by purchasing 40 solar powered bubble dryers for soybean drying at its collection centres.
The dryers not only achieve a uniform drying moisture but also enable faster drying of increased volume of grain at a time, as well as ease of the drying process when rains are experienced during harvesting seasons. Additionally, they reduce farmer labour needs and drudgrey, especially for female farmers who are highly involved in post-harvest activities.
“We have been able to secure and fulfil a procurement order to supply Makerere University Soybean Seed Aggregator with quality soybean seed of up to 20 metric tonnes due to use of solar powered bubble dryers. This is now a confirmed annual a market for all our farmers engaged in seed growing, thanks to CRAFT support & training,” shares Nezephor Aliganyira – CRAFT Project Coordinator, OKEBA Ltd.
Global Traders Ltd, another CRAFT supported agriSMEs has shifted all its lighting load to solar PV and is also planning to replace four electrically powered exhaust fans with turbo ventilators in its sunflower reception and storage area, as well as sanction the use of translucent sheets.
This move followed an energy efficiency audit that was undertaken by CRAFT, to identify efficient and sustainable opportunities towards reduced energy costs and resilience building for the business case.
The above, among other identified energy management opportunities have contributed to a reduction in the Global Trader’s electricity bill by 20%, hence building the company’s resilience to unreliable and costly grid electricity. The change has also contributed to reduction of emissions, thereby mitigating climate change.
“Renewable energy and energy efficiency integration into agribusiness should be cultivated as a culture, a new-normal for agro-industries to thrive based on a cost-effective, resilient and low-carbon pathway,” says Jacob Etunganan, CRAFT's Energy Advisor.
