SolDry

Most community gardens and farmers are largely affected by this post-harvest loss as a result of both over production and reduced consumption by consumers in the food industry. Hence, we came up with SolDry with our main focus on empowering women led cooperatives in availing them with the technology to be able to expand their productivity for local market and export at large. SolDry through its diverse product market target will be empowering youths especially women in these communities to be agents for distributing the product and installing it as a means to afford equal opportunities for all. Through our financial inclusion model which includes a credit facility for loan from local financial institutions and the PAYG integration will allow affordability of our product to all markets affording access to clean energy for all communities in lower income markets.

FAO global quantitative food losses in Sub-Saharan Africa are roughly 20% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops, fruits and vegetables, 27% for oilseeds, meat and milk, and 33% for fish. This reduces profit maximisation of market profits resulting in low profit margins. There is need for efficient affordable technology that will curb this best suited for their economic viability. With the abundance of UV energy in Zimbabwe, there is guarantee for technology efficiency in implementation.75% of the distribution agents and solar dryer installers will be women. The main reason why we intend to work with these women from the communities is because the demographic is less economically advantaged youths from the age 18 to 35. Our  agents will be those from the areas of distribution of  business locations in terms of market reach. In a bid to promote women development will partner various women cooperatives that carry-out various Small to medium scale projects to be the main custodians of operations in their areas. Under our revenue model stream, this will ensure that they have increased financial capital to be able to finance their  projects. We have taken it upon ourselves fostering their economic growth  to grow their revenue base. 

Solar dryers would be an important off-grid system for food processing at macro and micro levels in driving preservation. The technology behind the solar dryers involves use of galvanised sheets fitted with heating elements and a blowing fan that are typically assembled under metal foundry process of welding. The key raw material for manufacturing these dryers are easily accessible and available in the Zimbabwean market which allows the turnaround of production to be prompt. The position fans used will have a rotation allowance of 180 degrees to ensure that the blow air is spread evenly for uniform quality post preservation. The integration of mobile application-controlled heat sensors will ensure controlled temperature monitoring to ensure that different foods requiring different temperature for water content suitability will be achieved to maintain quality.The technology of using solar dryers in food preservation as opposed to the traditional direct UV drying is 6 times more efficient and faster. This will ensure that food preservative industries and farmers threatened by post-harvest loses have an opportunity to increase productivity and maximise on produce.

Zimbabwe’s rural population is made up of over 60% of the total population with little development in provision of technology reduced their efficiency in development. Most rural youth especially young women are slowly becoming the breadwinners as a result to urban migration for opportunities by male counterparts. As a result, they have limited time and access to pursue other opportunities in life as most of their life remains subsistence as they fend for the family. Women are the biggest victims of energy poverty in Africa because they in charge of disproportionately large role in outdoor activities such as cooking and agriculture. Therefore, our main thrust is providing energy access equity to development benefits such as improved health, education & livelihoods. Unemployment remains very high in Zimbabwe with the local markets not being able to create opportunities for the youth and marginalized resulting in most households living under the poverty datum line of a $1,79 USD per day. SolDry through its diverse product market target will be empowering youths especially women in these communities to be agents for distributing the product and installing it as a means to afford equal opportunities for all. 

SolDry has potential for breaking the market due to engaging  small scale farmers to reduce their post-harvest loss and subsequently emancipate the women led cooperatives empowered in their own communities through social entrepreneurial development .SolDry adds more shelf life of produce from 6 months to a year and be therefore adding value of the produce selling it now dry and packaged and looking more attractive than a fruit in a basket. It is a definite market for the local vendor to use our technology because no one wants to throw away produce therefore will consider adding value than losing money. 

SolDry infuses a dryer combining solar system and the heat sensors installed hence this provides more efficiency on the drying time and they controlled remotely on the mobile application by the user. The fans which are installed as well circulate on 180-degree angle hence heat distribution is spread uniformly.  The results are much more justified because there is retention of colour on the product. Additionally, comes to the product that were keeping as much nutrient in the food and vegetables being dried. An example is the tomato, a fresh tomato has more lycopene produced than a dried tomato therefore in terms of health wise is more advisable than a fresh tomato. The more dried food produced the less carbon emission is released from fruit and vegetables that are left to rot when the farmer has had damaged produce from mechanical damage from transportation from his farm to the farmers market. SolDry comes in Handy that the farmer does not have to get loss from his produce then has to dry the mechanical damaged tomatoes hence utilising full 100% sales by adding value to the tomatoes he would have thrown away. When we tested the imported solar dryer using tomatoes,  about 15kgs of tomatoes and after peeling we were left with about 10kg, and it took about 5 hours drying them and the total weight after drying them was about 6.3 kgs of dried produce. 

Galvanised sheets will make up 70% of the model which the outline of the dryer. Rotating fans are responsible for the hot air blowing within the system and their rotation index of 180 degrees will ensure uniform heat distribution. Heating elements will be the drying power source in providing the needed heat for the dryers. The door frame will be made from rivets and transparent glass to allow user to have visual access to the process. Heat sensors will be installed inside the drying chamber with the main use of temperature monitoring for regulation that will be monitored on a mobile application. 80W Solar panels will be the main power input source for storage into the batteries which will be used to power up the system .An inverter will be the main regulator for the solar system which will allow the user to also connect other solar powered appliances in lights and mobile phones. Rollers will also be key in increasing mobility of the system to allow usage were best fit.Steel-angle rods embedded with stainless steel mesh will make up the trays of the dryer allowing maximum food drying. Welding machine coupled with welding rods is the major equipment required in assembling the dryer in joining all resources. Automatic powered hand-drills will be used for the riveting of the nuts and bolts. Spray painting machine will also be used to give the SolDry is product final look and colour. 

Solar Dryer Functionality

The project will be constantly monitored and evaluated and all findings will be recorded. Indicator variables such as increase or decline in food loss, illegal dump sites and revenue acquired from sales (dried foods from dryer users) will be used to determine the progress of the project. Food loss statistics will be obtained from the local welfare facilities and other data will be obtained from the field of agriculture in close liaison with grain boards.Key monitoring and evaluation tools is in creating a mutual progressive partnership with the cooperatives leading directors for the community based vegetable vendors they will be a rent to dry bases. Hence we will be able to weigh the produce they have for data collection method and being able to calculate the amount of produce being saved and then calculate the amount of  dried food that is being let out into the market by our machines hence calculating how much of impact that the community is getting either directly or indirectly. For office administration and data security, we will be using cloud-based management tools like Asana and Slack which will be able to have an inclusive data exchange and storage for the team at large. We look forward to be using human capital-based software in order to get data control. Looking at the number of sales definitely we have our accounting systems that we get to calculate the number of units being rented out and being sold to the public. The application will be able to acquire data on the frequency and duration use of the dryer to which we will be able to do data analytics on capacity. We intend to couple the dryer with portable weight scales to enable users to know how much produce they are processing.

Currently our prototype is operating on a Rent-To-Dry basis to a market place with over 100 small scale vendors. The potential size of our market is targeting all the major vegetable markets in the capital city Harare which is Mbare musika ,Aspindale market ,Lusaka market which comprises of 100 to 150 fruit and vegetable vendors. When it comes to the women’s cooperatives in Harare their about 300 registered women’s cooperatives after going to the registrar to ask for potential needs assessment information on cooperatives to engage on. When it comes to small scale farmers in nearby Harare supplying the vegetable markets there are close to about 800 plus farmers which supply the above-mentioned vegetables markets. Market segmentation efficiently based on the small-scale farmers that are in the outskirts of Harare and the small women’s cooperatives which are in urban areas

Through the profits realised through the financing, we intend to increase number of units to be distributed to 600 by 2023 in our market to increase our revenue base in providing alternative clean energy for all.Our assumption is based on the financial spread under the PAYG which will spread across a minimum of 2 months to maximum of 6 months in the loan credit facility. Our targets will also be influenced by our on-market based agents that will increase operations due to increase of market share and distribution outlets. This in-turn will increase distribution of systems. In a bid to occupy efficiency in the production and reduction of food waste, we also intend to become distributors of packaged dry foods through a partnership with a local supplier called Chashi Foods. This will increase the functionality of our large-scale solar dryers as it diversifies our product and service base. By acquiring a patent for our technology, we position ourselves in having exclusive rights to the product. This will be our main base in creating opportunities for other distributors in the agriculture machinery sector to spread reach even to our none priority target markets. The technology of solar dryers within our targeted markets still remains very minimal which decreases competition allowing market dominance in providing the dryers.

• The project will be able to go ahead but with very limited development process  due to non-availability of funding.This is mainly due to the limited resource base in research and development opportunities for micro companies as large investors are adamant in funding product development and opposed to product retail within the Zimbabwean economy
• Customer financing is the potential large risk in driving sales through product distribution. 
•  Inflation has been a major drawback in conducting business is Zimbabwe as we are facing economic recession.  
• The product will be among the first of its technology to tap into the Zimbabwean market at household level increasing reduced acceptance especially for rural communities. 

• The funding will allow prompt manufacturing of a prototype for testing allowing quicker commercialisation of the product.The procurement of large scale equipment for the manufacturing of the dryers will also ensure that turn-over time for product to be in market is within our set distribution unit targets.A larger funding base also increases capacity which attracts more partners spread across implementation, funding and business development which are critical to business growth.
• If we are unable to access funding, SolDry will be continue with its set milestones using available funds creating a prototype for testing before commercialisation.We will get into a manufacturing partnership with local metal fabrication industry on a rent-to-use basis enabling us to manufacture our technology in a bid to raise enough profit capital to acquire our own and be operational as a sole manufacturer.
• By integrating our system on the Pay As You Go facility, we will allow financial spreading that will increase customer affordability of solar asset. Partnership with local financial institutions to provide credit loan facilities to customers will also ensure purchases.
• To curb this, since we are importing products, we will be legible to become a multi-currency vendor which will allow us to be able to bank our money in form of an international steady currency.
• We will partner with local authorities in District Councils and rural based social impacting companies in SNV and PLAN International to ensure efficient product use capacitation. Our area leaders will also be from intended markets to increase relativity to purpose.

Wetpa engineering is our technology development partner.Wetpa has experience in electrical and mechanical engineering and will assist in the mechanical product.This includes the prototype design model and ensuring that the assembled product has no defaults that will decrease its efficiency.Zim Agro-solutions is our product testing partner to depict best operating conditions for the various foods.Zim Agro-solutions is a large-scale horticulture entity withing the peri-urban farming areas of Zimbabwe.Their capacity of productive and micro-scale provision of produce has been incurring large post-harvest losses hence their willingness to become a partner in creating a technology to mitigate this.

The permanent staff consist of the CEO, COO, 2 Business Development officers, 2 Financial Specialist, Projects Manager and a Creative Designer. This is made up of a ratio of 62,5% women led by the CEO Ms Lash Sicelo. The Upcycle Kiosk managed by Ms Nyashadzashe Nyakatawa is made up of 15 upcyclers to which 73% of them are women. The Board is an advisory one consisting of 5 professionals from the financial, business development, environmental management, engineering and philanthropic sectors. The CEO is in-charge of the day to day activities of the organization in close liaison with the COO.

Mrs Cleopatra Makoni, the Chairperson of the Board comes with vast experience in Business Management being the Founder and CEO of one of the most successful transport company, PathFinder which operates between Zimbabwe and South Africa. She is also the Country Director for Enactus Zimbabwe. Ms Lashia Ncube the CEO bring in experience.Mr Paul Nyamadzawo the COO has over 3years experience in social entrepreneurship development and Start-up incubation development which has seen 10 companies successfully take to market under his guidance.Mr Paul Mujuru brings in vast experience in positioning the company for global standards as his interaction and studies abroad have given him a competitive edge in the company’s scope.CABS will be the lead product financing partner availing funds to clients under the credit facility for the PAYG facility.Rural Electrifying Agency Zimbabwe (REAZ) will be our penetration partner with their legal capacity working with rural communities in energy sectors will ensure product uptake.Girl Child Network will be our main human capital partner in access to marginalized females that will benefit under employment creation.Environmental Management Agency will be our implementation and legislation partner in ensuring information dissemination and upholding of the Circular IMW model for product efficiency.

The Boost Fellowship is our business development partner in creating viable business models.Through their experience in working with start-ups mostly in the social entrepreneurship space, the business model which we will implore in the project will be market and community based from experience. Zim Agro-solutions will be our product testing partner in the produce scope to depict best operating conditions for the various foods.Zim Agro-solutions is a large-scale horticulture entity withing the peri-urban farming areas of Zimbabwe.Their capacity of productive and micro-scale provision of produce has been incurring large post-harvest losses hence their willingness to become a partner in creating a technology to mitigate this. PLAN International and the Girl Child Network will be our implementation partner in the gender empowerment space through their diverse projects with women.Their women empowered projects involve mostly interaction with women from marginalized groups and communities which is our main target group.Their existence in these spaces will increase our project acceptability and adaptability.

The marketing scheme for the Solar Dryer will be segmented mostly into 2 sections: 1. Direct Marketing • Hardcopy handouts of flyers and brochures will be given out across various public areas that reach our target clients and at shopping malls and food outlets • Partnership with Ministry of Agriculture will be created that will tap into the database of all registered small and large-scale farmers. • Affiliate with Council associations that work directly with market places. • Exhibits at green expos, innovation platforms and related platforms will ensure client growth. • Newspapers, bulk mobile messages, emailing list and publications will also increase public engagement. 2. Third-Party Marketing • Partnering with various media and advertising agencies to increase reach. • Social media marketing (Facebook, Appstore, Twitter, Radio, Newspaper etc.) Distribution Channels Partnering with a mobile operator within a region and using media, word of mouth and community and organizational platforms to book presentations that will enlighten the concept of the service. Channels of Distribution • Social media • Emails • Partner Outlets • Mobile Operators The chart below illustrates the percentages of the intended distribution channels for the solar dryer. The reason why the mobile operator channel is over 50% demonstrates our desire as a company to ensure the reach cutting across all mobile operators which will constitute to the largest number of reach!