Cocoa drying system using ancestral sliding

Abstract

The decrease in the application of ancestral practices such as the drying of cocoa in traditional slides is a problem that affects small grain producers in terms of the price of the product, which is mostly sold in slime. It is intended to design an ancestral slide for cocoa drying so that ancestral knowledge of cocoa drying is recovered by promoting a fair price for cocoa that benefited for small producers. An experimental field methodology was applied. Results were obtained in 24 hours of drying light 7% humidity at an average temperature of 34º C, a parameter that allows preserving the quality of the grain during storage and without risk of deterioration due to the appearance of fungi. A solar-powered dryer was traditionally called slides used by small producers of cocoa in the province, where they can use materials from their environment and obtaining a dryer with a capacity, drying hours and percentage of humidity similar to the use of a dryer with conventional energy, without paying for the grain drying service in an industrial dryer.