Omena Black Box: Small Fish Solar Drier to Boost Nutrition and Livelihood for Communities in Lake Victoria, Kenya

Malnutrition is a big problem in Lake Victoria region of Kenya. Nonetheless, there is a nutritious freshwater sardine called Omena which comprises 44% of total catch of fish from the Lake but poor drying leads to huge wastage, lowering food value and incomes. Dried form of this fish has 3 to 6 months shelf life, and can be sold in small portions to meet needs of the rural poor both nutritionally and commercially. Increasing the availability of dried fish in the remote rural areas would help alleviate malnutrition. Traditionally, Omena are dried by laying the fish on the ground, resulting in their contamination with sand and animal waste and staleness during bad weather conditions. Our idea, the Omena black box, provides a stack of racks within a box that has internal black surfaces concentrating sun’s energy and airflow to maximize the fish drying. The Omena black box solar drier seeks to provide a new and easy-to-assemble technology to address(i) unhealthy way of drying Omena on the ground (ii) Misuse of Bednets for drying omena resulting to high malaria prevalence (iii) improving the quality of Omena fish hence more consumption and market availability. Additionally, the innovation will integrate technology, social and business aspects in attaining sustainability and scalability, by enhancing nutrition, promoting omena trade and the omena black box fabrication cottage industry.