Improvement of processing and stabilisation techniques

To produce quality fonio, it is necessary to remove the bran and sand mixed in with the grain after hulling and to properly dry the grains

Washing and sand removal methods for fonio (Activity 3)

Washing and removing sand from fonio are difficult operations that require “a lot of patience and a lot of water”. It takes about 10 litres of water to wash and remove the sand from 1kg of fonio.

The Aval Fonio project is aiming to develop washing and sand removal machinery. The prototypes produced will be tested in the laboratory and pilot equipment will subsequently be developed with small fonio processing companies in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Adapting dryers for SMEs (Activity 4)

'Greenhouse solar' (CSec-S) and 'through tray' dryers (Csec-T) have been developed in previous fonio projects. Under the Aval Fonio project, this equipment is being fitted with instruments in order to validate their performance.

After monitoring in real situations, periodically provided by ESP-UCAD, the equipment will be transferred to local manufacturers so that they can take care of the construction and marketing.