Background
Energy access is one of the many challenges faced by rural communities of Tanzania. The proliferation of affordable solar has enabled farmers and rural communities to benefit from lighting and home appliances but opportunities for productive applications of solar energy in agriculture remain limited.
Imara Tech is leading new research and development of agricultural technologies designed for use in rural areas of Tanzania. The project will be to develop four new solar-powered productive-use agricultural appliances for market:
Grain mill
Oil press
Peanut sheller
Cashew sheller
Since the beginning of 2020, Imara Tech has started developing these products to be market-ready by conducting field research, prototyping, building up our supply chain, and running pilots. By the end of the project in 2021, four new products will be added to the Imara Tech portfolio with clear business and impact cases behind them.
R&D Outputs
Research and development outputs from the project are publicly available. These documents are shared for the benefit of stakeholders working in the agriculture and off-grid energy sectors so that they can build off of our work.
The outputs follow from the product development process we follow to develop these solar powered agricultural machines. More will be continually added on a quarterly basis.
August 2020
User Research: Off-Grid Milling
Description: Journey map of off-grid maize milling users, analysis of key design criteria, and identification of potential solutions.User Research: Off-Grid Oil Extraction
Description: Journey map of off-grid oil extraction users, analysis of key design criteria, and identification of potential solutions.
Additional Information
This work is funded with UK aid from the UK government and with funds from the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI), 3rd Creek Foundation, Arthur B. Schultz Foundation, and Thriive. It is led by Imara Tech and jointly executed with A2EI and is commissioned through the Powering Opportunities Partnerships: Value Addition and Employment Creation project under the UK aid Transforming Energy Access program, with project support from Carbon Trust and Energy for Impact.
The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK government official policies, nor those of any other funder.
