Global Impacts:

Researcher Klein Ileleji knows the challenges farmers in developing countries face when drying crops. A native of Nigeria, he grew up in towns with unreliable power sources and knew small-scale farmers who couldn’t afford dryers and whose harvests were lost to pests and mold. Later as an agricultural engineer and specialist in grain production, he also knew there had to be a solution.

While working on a solar drying system for maize farmers in Senegal and Kenya, Ileleji, an agricultural and biological engineering professor and an extension engineer, stumbled across an idea.

Why not use the solar drying system to generate power as well? And then he spun off a third use — drying trays for the system that also can be used independently as small dehydrators. The DEHYTRAY, a portable solar dehydrator, was born.

The DEHYTRAY is a box that can be stacked and is easily transported in developing countries by bicycle, tricycle or canoe. Its clear cover allows maximum exposure of the contents to solar energy and protects the crop from rain and pilferage by livestock or rodents. It also is efficient, with temperatures inside the

DEHYTRAY double that of conventional drying methods that rely on the sun.

“The DEHYTRAY will reduce post-harvest losses, provide high-quality dried crops and ensure that communities are food secure,” Ileleji says.

DEHYTRAY is licensed by Purdue-affiliated startup JUA Technologies International.

Ileleji founded the company with his wife, Reiko Habuto Ileleji, who earned her PhD from Purdue’s College of Education. Developed as part of the Purdue-led U.S. Agency for International Development

(USAID) Feed-the-Future project for Food Processing and Post-Harvest Handling, DEHYTRAY is designed for farmers with small, multicrop operations. It is an affordable, multipurpose device that can be used to dry grains, fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants and other food products while maintaining valuable nutrients.

In addition, the device is a hygienic alternative to traditional open-air drying methods that include laying crops along roadsides to dry on the hot asphalt. Farmers lose income when their produce is dried under such conditions, because they are shut out of profitable sales to city markets and international export.

The device also is being used by a farmer in Senegal to dry moringa, and by a farming community in Kenya to dry kale, mango and other local vegetables with the support of training provided by researchers at the University of Nairobi.

Small- and mid-size growers of specialty crops in Indiana, Georgia and California are testing the dehydrator through a project supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.