ReDIAL Project Innovation in Threshing
The EU funded ReDIAL project is contributing to addressing the problems of manual threshing of grains and cereals. It is doing this through the use of the Multi-crop thresher technology. The project is targeting and supporting farmers to improve production of high value grains and cereals, and help them make more income while saving time and energy.
The project will work with over 2000 farmer across the country and introduce to them the innovative low-cost, Multi-crop thresher technology that reduces post harvest loss in grains and cereals by up to 30%. The thresher is locally designed and produced by SAYeTECH, a Ghanaian Agri-tech startup Company.
Piloting of the multi-crop threshers in Ghana, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania and Burundi has impacted farmers, employed many youth and liberated many women and children from threshing labour. Many farmers will benefit because the thresher unit is mobile and it is about 60 times faster and cheaper than manual threshing, it threshes maize, rice, soybeans, common beans and 5 other different species of cereal crops, it requires little maintenance and only two people for its operation, and produces quality grains.
The project is adopting an improved version of the Multi-Crop Thresher powered with solar energy and will work with farmers and stakeholders to validate the performances. This will promote sustainable renewable energy use that is climate friendly and further reduce the cost of operation. The project is also working with service providers, government and financial institutions and link them to farmers for sustainable funding and support for the technology beyond the project phase. The picture of thresher in operation is shown below:
