Where It All Began
In the heart of Nairobi at Strathmore University, a team of forward-thinking students observed a devastating reality for Kenya's smallholder farmers. Every harvest season, farmers worked tirelessly to grow maize, only to lose up to a third of their yield to spoilage and mold because they lacked fast, reliable ways to dry their crops. Traditional open-air sun drying was at the mercy of unpredictable weather and pests.
Driven to find a sustainable solution, Job Ian Onyango, Isaiah Ochieng, Ruman Hassan, Ronit Mepani, and Emmanuel Sintila Lekatoo came together to form ITEDA Solutions.
The team recognized that while solar energy was abundant in rural Kenya, simple sun drying was no longer enough to support modern agricultural demands. They set out to engineer a smarter system specifically tailored for off-grid, smallholder farmers.
Their solution was a modular solar dryer. Unlike massive, expensive industrial dryers, ITEDA's design was built to be scalable and affordable. They integrated smart technology into the units, using sensors and microcontrollers to actively monitor and regulate temperature and humidity. This automation ensured that crops dried at the perfect rate, preserving nutritional value and completely eliminating the threat of aflatoxin-producing molds.