Dear Friend,
Greetings from Puntland, Somalia!
We are enormously grateful for your support of the project "Give Clean Water & Energy to 350 Somali Families". We want to share with you some updates on the progress made.
In the last couple of months, the preparation of the El-Dahir pilot farm has continued and we completed the construction of the dates processing unit building. We keep on moving forward, but we need your continuous support to continue the implementation of this exciting project!
Process of the construction of the small-scale dates processing unit in El-Dahir pilot farm.
After the conduction of a competitive procurement process, CEFA has identified a contractor for the construction of the small-scale processing unit for dates in the pilot farm of El-Dahir. The works have started successfully in September 2021, and the structure of the processing unit has now been completed. The processing unit will be soon equipped for the processing of the dates.
The processing unit will be entirely powered by the Off-Grid Box solar energy, generating zero CO2 emissions, and contributing towards the improvement of the post-harvesting process of dates in Puntland.
On-the-job training of 4 university students during the construction of the dates processing unit.
During the construction works of the processing unit, 4 engineering students (both < 35 years, 2 males and 2 females) from the East Africa and Puntland Universities were attached and trained on the construction site. For a month, the students have been receiving combined sessions of practice and theory from the project engineer on the site, to complement their academic background and to facilitate their access to the labor market.
Innovative model of dates solar dryer in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin University for replication by the private sector in Puntland and adoption in the El-Dahir Pilot Farm
CEFA will introduce in the dates processing unit an innovative model of solar dryer developed by the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy.
The master model "Icaro", which was presented and described in a previous report, was approved after the testing process in Italy. The sample is ready to be shipped to Bossaso to start manufacturing the solar dryer in Puntland, in collaboration with the local private sector. To this end, a construction manual and a video tutorial have been produced by the Polytechnic University of Turin, which will continue supervising the replication of the “Icaro” in Puntland through remote technical support.
Procurement of an innovative drip irrigation system for date palm farming.
CEFA has identified and is in the process of procuring an innovative drip irrigation system for date palm farming in the El-Dahir pilot farm.
This drip irrigation system mainly consists of ring-shaped drip lines and drips, which directly apply water into the tree root zone of the date palm, supporting a discharge ability of 200 liters per tree per day delivered within 2.5 hrs.
Generally, drip irrigation systems allow more efficient water use when compared to other irrigation methods. However, the Puntland context can, sometimes, result problematic in the adoption of drip irrigation systems, due to the high-water salinity level. The proposed ring-shaped drip irrigation system utilizes super-sized water emitters to mitigate salinity challenges. These emitters are augmented up to 20% more in comparison to conventional drips and are thus designed to counter the salty water-caused clogging, resulting in lower maintenance costs. Supersized water emitters make this drip system ideal for the Puntland context to mitigate salinity challenges.
In addition, their emission rate can be adjusted for different crops. The drip ring can be up to 15 meters in length to allow adjustment and continued usage as the tree grows owing to its expanding root system. The ring is connected with several emitters located approximately 0.5 apart. The ring-shaped drip emitters will be augmented to ensure they do not get clogged with the salts emanating from the Puntland salty water and also ensure a shorter irrigation duration of maximum 2.5 hours per day at a rate of at least 0.45l/min/emitter. This high rate of emission will also prevent backflow and will be designed with end caps or flush valves.
The Off-Grid Box will power through solar energy a water submersible pump, that will lift water from the shallow well up to 30,000.00 liters elevated tank (7 meters). From the elevated tank, the water will be distributed to the date palms orchard through a ring-shaped drip irrigation system, that is intended to provide water at the drip line for palm trees in a more efficient manner, saving a considerable amount of water.
Preparation for the shipment of the Off-Grid Box, master model of ICARO solar dryer, and the processing unit equipment.
The container for the shipment of the Off-Grid Box and master model of ICARO is being prepared and is almost ready. The shipment is programmed for the month of January 2022, from Italy to the port of Salalah, in Oman, where it will be subsequently forwarded to the port of Bossaso, in Puntland. In February 2022, the container will be offloaded to start the transport and the installation in the El-Dahir pilot farm.
Please keep supporting us to help us see this project taking over and to give more sustainable access to clean water, energy, and food for Somali families!
Links:
Dear Friend,
Greetings from Puntland, Somalia!
We are glad to share with you some updates on the progress made in the last quarter towards the shipment and installation of the Off-Grid Box in Puntland. Thanks to your support, we are getting closer to the fundraising goal to allow this project to take over!
In the meantime, we are continuing with the preparatory work on the ground to make sure that the project "Give Clean Water & Energy to 350 Somali Families" will be a success!
Signature of a multi-party agreement with the local community, the regional farmer association, and the local government on the management and ownership of the Off-Grid Box.
Following an extensive consultation process with our local stakeholders, CEFA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the farming community in Bosaso District, the Puntland Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, and Climate Change, our partners SADAR and Off-Grid Box, and the regional farmer association of Puntland to set the respective rules, roles, and responsibility for the management, maintenance, and ownership of the Off-Grid Box. Both the local community and authorities have received great interest in the proposal of CEFA, and they are looking forward to the installation of the Box and the commencement of the activities on the ground!
Completion of the procurement process for the construction of the small-scale dates processing unit in El-Dahir pilot farm.
After the definition of the pilot farm's design and layout, CEFA has conducted an open and competitive procurement process to identify the local contractor in charge of the construction of the small-scale processing units for dates that will be powered by the Off-Grid Box in the El-Dahir pilot farm. The small-scale processing unit will significantly contribute towards the improvement of the post-harvesting process of dates in Puntland, working as aggregation and processing centers to increase the quality of the drying, cleaning, and packaging processes of dates, and, consequently, their shelf-life and market price. The procurement process has been completed, a local firm has been identified, and the construction works have just started.
Development of an innovative model of dates solar dryer in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin University for replication by the private sector in Puntland and adoption in the El-Dahir Pilot Farm.
In collaboration with the Italian Polytechnic of Turin University, CEFA has developed an innovative model of solar dryer to be used in the date palm value chain. The solar dryer has been called "Icaro" and, after an ad-hoc capacity building program is delivered to local manufacturers in Puntland by CEFA in collaboration with the academic researcher and professor who designed the solar dryer, it will be locally produced and adopted in the El-Dahir pilot farm. So far, a few farmers in Puntland have tried, in collaboration with the local private sector, to build their own active solar thermal dryer. Still, these attempts have been characterized by a rudimental design that did not consider the temperature and the speed of the air flows inside the collectors, which is actually fundamental to obtain the right moisture content of the fruits. As opposed to the traditional simple sun-drying of dates, the introduction of a certain degree of "mechanization" is aimed to achieve a dehydration process that is, at the same time:
• Far better controlled as to the precise value of process temperature to be reached and maintained over the necessary time.
• Substantially accelerated, compared to other drying technologies, particularly those that exploit the greenhouse effect (glazed ovens or plastic tunnels).
• Completely protected from the quality detrimental ultraviolet radiation that, on the contrary, occurs in the transparent tunnels.
Procurement of complementary materials, tools, and equipment for the establishment of the El-Dahir dates pilot farm
Thanks to the support of Off-Grid Box, the project has procured all the complimentary materials, tools, and equipment for the establishment of the pilot farm have been procured and are ready to be shipped with the Box. In particular, the following items have been procured: Photovoltaic Module; Inverter; Solar charger; Electric Storage; USB charging rack for power banks; Internal tank; External collection system; Internal filters; High-efficiency hydraulic pumps; Ultraviolet Sterilizer with a digital counter; Remote Monitoring system of Water and Power utilization via 2G, 3G, 4G; Heat Sealer for dates processing; Spare Parts Heat Sealer; Plastic tubular reels for packaging; Scales; Plastic Baskets; Stainless Steel (not Perforated) Table for packaging of dates; Stainless Steel (Perforated) Table for washing of dates; Alphanumeric Pricing Machine; Label Rolls for Pricing Machine; Power Banks + Bulbs for lighting; Reverse Osmosis for brackish water.
Preparation of the Off-Grid Box for shipment to Puntland
The 5x5 meters container is under preparation in Italy for shipment to Puntland, Somalia.
Please keep supporting us to see this project take over as soon as possible and give more than 350 Somali families access to clean water, energy, and food!
Links:
Dear Friend,
Greetings from Somalia!
Thanks to your support, the project "Give Clean Water & Energy to 350 Somali Families" is ready to start and help more than 2,400 people in Puntland, Somalia, to improve their access to drinkable water, clean energy, and safe food!
The project team has been working hard in the past months to prepare the shipment and the installation of the Off-GridBox in El-Dahir village, despite the continuous challenges of the COVID19 pandemic and insecurity in the country.
In particular, the following preliminary activities have been completed:
- Identification of the target location for the installation of the Off-GridBox technology in collaboration with the local community and stakeholders.
CEFA team in Puntland had several consultations and field visits with the local community and stakeholders to identify the perfect location where the Off-Grid Box will be installed. As a result of this participatory process, the team selected a date palm farm located less than 2 km from the El-Dahir town center and accessible by a tarmac road connected to Bosasso port (95 km). The field currently cultivated with date palms measures 6,800 cubic meters, with 106 palm trees aged between 6-7 years old. In addition, there are 0.7 hectares of land that the project intends to use to establish a date palm demo farm with new imported seedlings. The Off-GridBox will fetch water from an 11-meters shallow-well located 200 meters from the main field.
- Collection of water samples and conduction chemical analysis to define the best water treatment system to be adopted by the Off-Grid Box.
To define the most adapted water treatment system to be included in the Off-GridBox for purifying water and thus providing the surrounding communities and families with safe drinkable water, the project team collected water samples from the selected location. The samples were then sent to Nairobi to be analyzed. Based on the chemical analysis conducted, CEFA and Off-Grid Box decided to include, besides the active carbon and ultraviolet filters, a reverse osmosis system to remove residual sediment and dissolved solids. This system will significantly improve the quality and safety of the drinkable water accessible by the local community.
- Definition of a pilot farm's layout and design.
On top of providing improved access to clean water and energy to 350 families in El-Dahir village, the Off-Grid Box will be used to irrigate crops and power food production equipment, boosting the local economy and increasing the availability of nutritious and safe food throughout the year.
A pilot farm managed by the local community will be established in the selected location to provide the farming community in Puntland capacity building through practical demonstration, extension services, and opportunities to increase their income. In particular, CEFA is working to strengthen the date palm value chain in Puntland, and the Off-Grid Box will provide sufficient energy to power: a) a highly-efficient irrigation system; b) two solar dryers; c) a labeling and packaging machines; d) an additional water point for washing and cleaning the dates.
The Off-GridBox will power a submersible water pump that will lift water to a water tank. The water will be then distributed in the field through a supplementary booster pump (also powered by the solar energy of the Off-Grid Box) by a ring-shaped drip irrigation system specifically designed for date palm irrigation. The pilot farm will also include a small-scale post-harvesting center to serve as an aggregation and processing center for date palm production in the region. This will improve the post-harvesting processing of dates, contributing to the extension of their shelf life, the reduction of production wastages, and better marketing and pricing opportunities. The post-harvesting unit will be able to process between 2,000 and 6,000 kg of dates per harvesting season, providing also an opportunity for aggregation of the post-harvesting processes from different producers and date farms.
- Development of a multi-party agreement with the local community, the regional farmer association, and the local government on the management and ownership of the Off-Grid Box.
To guarantee that the benefits of the installation of the Box will be fairly shared by the community members of El-Dahir and the surrounding villages, CEFA has successfully started a multi-party consultation process that has involved community representatives, local leaders, the regional farmer association, and the Puntland government. This process is leading to the signature of a commonly agreed Memorandum of Understanding that sets the respective rules, roles, and responsibility for the management, maintenance, and ownership of the Off-Grid Box.
- Capacity building of local technicians on the Off-Grid Box technology through technical training and field visits in Rwanda and Tanzania.
Four Somali technicians have successfully received practical training on the installation, functioning, and management of the box by the Off-Grid Boxtechnical team in Rwanda and Tanzania. The team traveled to the field to visit already installed Off-Grid Boxes in different contexts, having several opportunities to practically learn how to install, operate, and maintain this technology, beyond interacting with local technicians and users of the box to better understand potential opportunities and possible challenges. The trained technicians are now ready to receive and install the Off-Grid Box in Puntland, Somalia.
The Off-GridBox is planned to be shipped and installed in Puntland between May and June 2021. Please keep supporting us to help us see this project taking over and to give more than 350 Somali families access to clean water, energy, and food!
Links:
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