To submit a poster abstract or view the submission guidelines, please visit the Call for Poster Abstracts page.

Developing a large scale consumption of fonio
Presenter: Sanoussi Diakite, Chercheur, DKP

For the 200 million people living in West Africa, who are confronted with food insecurity and malnutrition, affecting their health, the fonio (Digitaria exilis) is one of the best solutions close at hand due to its composition, and its high nutritive value (cf. “Lost Crops of Africa” published by the National Academy Press (Washington D.C., 1996). Sanoussi DIAKITE, 2008 Tech Awards laureate, invented a fonio husker machine which allows a large scale of the consumption of this food. In fact, the painstaking post-harvest operations, particularly during the husking process have been the hindrance to a large consumption. The advent of the machine has permitted to solve the problem by drastically windling the husking operation from 2 hours for 2.5 kg fonio to 8 mn for 5 kg. The technological solution is meant to husk and clean the fonio grains as they pass through the shifting and flexible paddle which is set on a vertical axis and on top of a fixed plate. The separation of grain and husk is done simultaneously by a system of ventilation available on the rotating axel, and which brushes away the bran through a pipe to a storage bin, and the grain itself is collected below through a hole by gravity.

Contact: sanoussi34@hotmail.com

View Poster as PDF (coming soon)

---

Submit a comment:

Comments:

Fri, March 12, 2010:
I think Mr. Sanoussi has done a wonderful thing with this machine. Are there any available to buy at this time? Fonio seems like such a good grain that I would expect health food stores in Europe and North America to demanding it. I do agricultural and a

Fri, March 12, 2010:
My first comment didn't finish. I do ag. work in Central Africa and what Mr. Sanoussi has done is exactly what Africa needs to validate so many of it's good local food crops.