Students invent pot refrigerator
Jun 05, 2006
INSUFFICIENT power supply in rural areas has enabled students of Sir. Tito Winyi in Hoima district to improve the indigenous pot, turning it into a better cooling facility.
By Ronald Kalyango
INSUFFICIENT power supply in rural areas has enabled students of Sir. Tito Winyi in Hoima district to improve the indigenous pot, turning it into a better cooling facility.
The newly-invented pot refrigerator will act as a substitute for the expensive power and paraffin-run refrigerators.
“We have gone an extra mile in improving locally-made pots through the use of indigenous knowledge,†said Jackson Barigye, the school’s farm manager and brain behind the technology.
The students were recently exhibiting the pots to officials from the National Agricultural Research Organisation, Ministry of Agriculture, National Agricultural Advisory Services and local people who converged at Bulindi Agricultural and Research Development Centre. The pots are capable of cooling water and fruits.
Barigye said Hoima is gifted with several fruits but the biggest percentage goes to waste due to lack of refrigeration services. This causes flies to roam villages during the harvesting season.
Constructing of the pot refrigerators requires one to have enough clay, which can be used to make two pots. An outer pot is constructed first and left to dry for six hours before an inner pot is constructed but this should be elevated a bit. In between the two pots, space is left. This is filled with dry charcoal that enables proper evaporation as a mug of water is poured on it regularly.
After construction, the pot is left inside a house to dry for two to three weeks to avoid cracks which would lower the pot’s lifespan.
“The pot should be placed either at the verandah or in any safe place, covered with a wet cloth for purposes of averting heat from the the pot,†he said.
The pot, which costs sh10,000, has a carrying capacity of quarter a crate of sodas.
“All the people in rural areas should take on the new pots,†he said.
Barigye said the demand for the pots was high among the local people engaged in the production of local brew and some small-scale traders.
He said they are in the process of making bigger pots that would store close to two crates of sodas and more fruits.
INSUFFICIENT power supply in rural areas has enabled students of Sir. Tito Winyi in Hoima district to improve the indigenous pot, turning it into a better cooling facility.
The newly-invented pot refrigerator will act as a substitute for the expensive power and paraffin-run refrigerators.
“We have gone an extra mile in improving locally-made pots through the use of indigenous knowledge,†said Jackson Barigye, the school’s farm manager and brain behind the technology.
The students were recently exhibiting the pots to officials from the National Agricultural Research Organisation, Ministry of Agriculture, National Agricultural Advisory Services and local people who converged at Bulindi Agricultural and Research Development Centre. The pots are capable of cooling water and fruits.
Barigye said Hoima is gifted with several fruits but the biggest percentage goes to waste due to lack of refrigeration services. This causes flies to roam villages during the harvesting season.
Constructing of the pot refrigerators requires one to have enough clay, which can be used to make two pots. An outer pot is constructed first and left to dry for six hours before an inner pot is constructed but this should be elevated a bit. In between the two pots, space is left. This is filled with dry charcoal that enables proper evaporation as a mug of water is poured on it regularly.
After construction, the pot is left inside a house to dry for two to three weeks to avoid cracks which would lower the pot’s lifespan.
“The pot should be placed either at the verandah or in any safe place, covered with a wet cloth for purposes of averting heat from the the pot,†he said.
The pot, which costs sh10,000, has a carrying capacity of quarter a crate of sodas.
“All the people in rural areas should take on the new pots,†he said.
Barigye said the demand for the pots was high among the local people engaged in the production of local brew and some small-scale traders.
He said they are in the process of making bigger pots that would store close to two crates of sodas and more fruits.