According to the innovators, the EasyDry M500, which was originally developed by the AflaSTOP project with funding from USAid and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is a highly mobile, portable maize dryer targeted at smallholder farmers.
It uses open-source technology that can dry maize in batches of 500 kilos, lowering the moisture level from 18 to 20 per cent to approximately 13.5 per cent in three hours. According to the innovators’ manual, the dryer burns maize cobs as its main heat source, given that cobs are available on farms and at little to no cost. The heat and smoke produced from burning the maize cobs pass through the heat exchange of the EasyDry M500 and then out the chimney.