Feb 2022 Lake Victoria Uganda: Fish Drying Project 

These open Canoes are used by the fishers of Lake Victoria in a night fishery for a small silver called Dagaa. The gentleman on the right of the photo is carrying the kerosene lamps used to attract the fish.

There is no cold chain available, so the fish are preserved upon landing by sun drying. At this landing site, drying is carried out on old nets spread upon the ground.

We observed that birds, cats, donkeys, reptiles and insects have unfettered access, leading to loss of the product, spoilage and contamination. Worse if the weather is overcast or rainy the fish spoil before they dry.

As Sod’s Law predicts the rainy season is both the best season for fishing and the worst season for drying the catch. 

 

To improve food quality and food security our project is looking at the potential of using a poly tunnel dryer warmed by solar powered heat pumps. This will remove the adverse effects of rain showers and prevent fish loss and contamination by wandering animals.

 

As you can see from this photo, Dagaa are a small fish, making gutting or filleting impractical. Each of these jerry can derived containers holds ca. 50kg of wet fish. On drying the weight drops by ca. 80%.

Once dried the fish are sold locally and can be transported in ambient conditions.  Well dried examples are used as Human food either “as is” in the form of a jerky-like snack or as an ingredient in soups and stews. Lower quality examples are downgraded for use as animal feed- often Chickens.

We observed that birds, cats, donkeys, reptiles and insects have unfettered access, leading to loss of the product, spoilage and contamination. Worse if the weather is overcast or rainy the fish spoil before they dry.

Our “Doll’s House” scale drying tent uses Photovoltaic Solar Panels for power, a battery pack to even out cloud cover and showers, a DC fan and an AC inverter to run a 1kw (input) water to air heat pump. We reached temperatures of 50C with a relative humidity of