Plant Sketch / Layout

 

A visual illustration of how our intended agro-processing plant will look like. The UCF is located on 12 acres in Namisita, and that is where this plant, too, shall be located.

 

1). Plant layout:

This is only a hand-drawn illustration of what the plant site itself will look like. An accurate plan will be made by an engineer/industrial designer once we find support.

 

2). Two large greenhouse-type solar food dryers (9mx27m each):

These solar dryers will be used in producing High Quality Cassava Flour, and will be complemented by an assortment of equipment/accessories that aren’t pictured here, like cassava slicers; a cassava milling machine; a shelter from where cassava is peeled; a concrete water tank where cassava is temporarily soaked (for hydrolysis) as a way of converting cyanogenic glucosides into cyanide (in bitter varieties); a boiling system for reducing cyanide content, a conveyor belt for moving cassava inside the facility, etc.

The first two photos below are of a smaller solar dryer i.e. a prototype (measuring 6mx7m) that we installed at the UCF in 2018. The other two photos below them are of the larger (9mx27) dryers that we intend to install at our plant. The large dryers pictured here were installed by the same team (SolarlabSu.com) who will install ours.

 

a). Photos of the prototype that has already been installed at the UCF:

 

b). The large solar dryers (9mx27m) that we aim to install at our intended plant:

 

3). A cassava starch facility.

The size of our cassava starch facility, and the choice of where its equipment will come from, will both depend on how much money we raise for our intended plant.

In our original budget, we allocated $380,000 to this facility, but the FAO puts the average cost of such a plant in Africa at $736,340. We are also aware of a smaller such facility that was installed in Uganda for only $100,000; another that was installed by a UK-based agribusiness group in The Gambia for $420,000, and a more superior one that has been planned by the Uganda government in the furthest part of eastern Uganda for $12.7m, though the latter includes the overall costs of extension services (e.g. farmer training etc.) associated with this project, not just the starch part of it.

The two photos below are of the $420,000 starch facility in The Gambia:

 

4). A cereal / grain sorting, grading and threshing system:

This will be installed by Alvan Blanch (UK). Alvan Blanch has a field office in Uganda, and has installed a wide range of post-harvest technologies both in Uganda and across Africa. The two photos below are of our intended cereal/grain cleaning system. The first photo was taken by the UCF’s own team on a visit (in January 2020) to a similar facility that was also installed by Alvan Blanch, in Northern Uganda. Photo #2 is the original image of the same facility, and has been copied from Alvan Blanch’s website.

 

5). A fruit processing facility:

In developing our fruit facility, we will seek technical assistance from people like Alvan Blanch; TechnoServe; Partners in Food Solutions, and — where necessary — from local government agencies like the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC), a government agency that was in charge of developing a similar fruit facility in a place called Soroti.

Below is what our fruit facility will look like (photo copied from the Benfruit Plant):

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P.S. – see our planned Business Model for this plant by hovering over “Action Plan”.