Farm Tools: The skilted food store
Sep 20, 2011
It is long after the harvesting season. However, many farmers are still keeping a larger portion of their harvest in stores. In many parts of Teso and Karamoja, however, floods have found their way into the stores and destroyed a lot of produce.
By Joshua Kato
It is long after the harvesting season. However, many farmers are still keeping a larger portion of their harvest in stores. In many parts of Teso and Karamoja, however, floods have found their way into the stores and destroyed a lot of produce. To mitigate this, you should construct a raised food store also known as a skilted food store because it stands on at least four poles.
Constructing this structure is easy. For starters, most of them are constructed using locally available and cheap materials. You can either use timber or tree pieces. Perhaps, the most expensive item on the structure are the iron sheets, but even then, you can decide to use papyrus mats for roofing if you do not have the money to buy iron sheets. There are labour costs, of course, but many farmers do the construction themselves.
The size depends on the amount of produce. However, for ordinary farmers, a 10x10 feet structure can do. This has the capacity of storing at least 30 bags of cereals.
Other than shielding your produce from ravaging floods, an up lifted food store helps keep pests and rodents at bay. A structure can last for several years before you have to reconstruct it again.
It is long after the harvesting season. However, many farmers are still keeping a larger portion of their harvest in stores. In many parts of Teso and Karamoja, however, floods have found their way into the stores and destroyed a lot of produce. To mitigate this, you should construct a raised food store also known as a skilted food store because it stands on at least four poles.
Constructing this structure is easy. For starters, most of them are constructed using locally available and cheap materials. You can either use timber or tree pieces. Perhaps, the most expensive item on the structure are the iron sheets, but even then, you can decide to use papyrus mats for roofing if you do not have the money to buy iron sheets. There are labour costs, of course, but many farmers do the construction themselves.
The size depends on the amount of produce. However, for ordinary farmers, a 10x10 feet structure can do. This has the capacity of storing at least 30 bags of cereals.
Other than shielding your produce from ravaging floods, an up lifted food store helps keep pests and rodents at bay. A structure can last for several years before you have to reconstruct it again.