Pre Cooked Solar Dehydrated Beans (PSDB) project is an energy efficient, environmental conservation and women empowerment initiative in sub Saharan Africa.

That conserves the environment by reducing 87.5 % of the time it takes to cook beans by firewood/charcoal

Dry beans are the most consumed of the pulses variety in sub Saharan Africa Pan African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA)

Whereby a Woman will spend at least 2-3 hours to get it well cooked.

Pre-cooked Solar Dried Beans will only take at most 20 minutes to get ready, because it only requires the frying process.

This will save at least 105 minutes implicating that a woman’s time has been saved, consequently reducing drudgery and giving her more time to do other economic activities

Wood gas from firewood and Carbon Monoxide from charcoal are also a major cause of respiratory disorders in women leading to mortality.

CHALLENGES BEFORE PSDB IMPLEMENTATION

Beans are the most important pulse grown in Sub-Saharan Africa and constitute a significant part of the diets to low-income communities living under 1 dollar. Most beans are consumed as dry grain, which takes longer to cook, making this therefore a significant constraint to bean consumption as it requires a lot of heat energy mostly from Firewood and Charcoal to cook.

Firewood/Charcoal which is used by 195 million people in sub-Saharan Africa as a primary cooking fuel.in Tanzania alone 90% (Charcoal 21%, 69% firewood) of all households use it as their main source of energy for cooking. is also one of the major causes of environmental degradation and Respiratory disorders in women. “For two hours a woman will sustain flames on firewood by blowing through wood gas using her mouth and this is a direct application of her lungs as a “natural blower”.

Besides that, this initiative would also reduce women’s drudgery hence contributing grossly to environmental conservation, food and nutrition security, income and employment for small holder farmers.

Tanzania burns one million tons of charcoal each year which amounts to clearing of more than 300 hectares of forest every day.

75 people die daily in Tanzania from inhaling smoke from inefficient wood burning technologies.

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