Projekt

Kenya is overburdened by the high prevalence of mycotoxins that contaminate foods. With a tropical climate favourable for fungal growth, these toxins compound health problems and erode progress to eradicate poverty and hunger. Mismanagement of harvests coupled with technological deficiencies on small farms account for losses of up to 30% in annual crop yields, threatening the livelihoods of already impoverished communities. Despite global efforts to address the crisis, many solutions introduced rely on technological imports to the detriment of local microenterprises, specifically to those involved in manufacturing - such as the Jua Kali in Kenya. As sustainable livelihood management requires the integration of indigenous competencies and resources into proposed interventions, this proposed project focuses on a participatory approach to mycotoxin reduction by involving Jua Kali. Mitigating mycotoxins can offer an opportunity to develop local capacity to upgrade technologies on small farms, strengthening livelihoods and improving health of the broader population, and hence the focus of this project to analyse approaches for design optimization to combat the menace with technologies that can be used on smallholder farms and produced by the Kenyan Jua Kali sector. Using a participatory design approach to technology innovation, societal stakeholders will be brought into a knowledge creation process together with engineers, microbiologists and social scientists, that will seek to: expose and contextualise existing barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship; appraise local (on-farm) postharvest technologies with regards to potential to mitigate mycotoxins; co-design and prototype selected on-farm technologies for mitigating mycotoxins and evaluate strategic linkages to accelerate their adoption and commercialisation through the Jua kali sector. The success of this approach could inform other technological research initiatives in Africa, beyond just mycotoxin reduction as envisaged in this project.

• Prof. Dr. Eva Schlecht

  Universität Göttingen
  Fakultät für Agrarwissenschaften
  Department für Nutztierwissenschaften
  Abteilung Tierhaltung in den Tropen und Subtropen
  Göttingen
  

• Dr. Isaiah Etemo Muchilwa

  Moi University
  School of Engineering
  Eldoret
  Kenia
  

• Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Schareika

  Universität Göttingen
  Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät
  Institut für Ethnologie
  Göttingen
  

• Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert

  Universität Kassel
  FB 11: Ökologische Agrarwissenschaften
  Fachgebiet Ökologischer Pflanzenbau und Agraröko-
  systemforschung in den Tropen und Subtropen
  Witzenhausen
  

• Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis of Thin-layer Drying Models Based on Seed Maize Drying Data

• Design and Performance Evaluation of a Hydronic Type Compost Heat Exchanger

• Dynamic Modelling of Low-Temperature Batch In-Bin Drying of Cobed Seed Maize: an Industrial Case Study

• Waste to Energy: Heat Recovery from the Compost Reactor as a Source of Renewable Energy