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by Dyann C. Daniel
From humankind’s earliest efforts at agriculture over 10,000 years ago, little has changed in the challenges associated with grain storage. Efforts to seal and protect grain stores against losses to spoilage and pests have led to countless approaches to grain storage systems, giving way to globalization. Despite many advances in grain storage construction techniques, the challenges have remained the same while the need for flexible on-site grain storage continues to increase.
Isabela State University in the Isabela Province, Philippines, with a mandate of providing advanced instruction in the agricultural and natural sciences as well as in technological fields, took action on these trials by innovating a Self-Propelled Riding Type Grain Collector (Bagger) for Solar Dried Grains. The project was recently approved for TECHNiCOM funding following the Program’s 1st Wave of Call for Proposals.
The machine, having a high capacity of 360-380 cavans (18-19 tons) per hour, can collect solar-dried grains on paved roads and save them from possible wetting due to sudden rainfall. With over 80 percent of farmers, related cooperatives, and traders using solar drying, this technology has an economic advantage in the quality and quantity production of solar-dried crops.
ISU’s Grain Bagger, in its second design, as conceptualized by Dr. Alcaraz
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