Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University, in collaboration with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for the Reduction of Postharvest Loss (PHL-IL) has organized a practical training on drying of maize by solar bubble drier to farmers in Kudmi village in Mecha district. The practical training held as of November 25, 2017 aims at introduction of integrated post management of maize grains. A total of fifty farmers participated on the training into two batch of which 20 were females. Researchers from the PHL-IL project explained the benefits of drying technology for postharvest management of maize.
Kudmi is one of the villages which enjoy year round crop production using the Koga Irrigation Dam. Villagers are always keen to remove the rain fed maize crop as soon as possible because they have to prepare the land for the off-season horticulture production using irrigation. Hence, they are obliged to remove the maize stand as the grain moisture content is high and heap it in the field until it dries. Farmers applauded the introduction of the drying technology, because it will help them make their land ready for the next crop before it is too late. The next step is to demonstrate and comparatively evaluate different drying technologies and storage technologies with ative participation of farmers for the coming six months.
