Rotary dryer in a study based on participatory principles for smallholder scale drying

Small farmers who mostly live in rural areas need a cheap and easy technique for the post-harvest production process, especially drying. The participation of farmers is very much needed so that the design of work tools according to their needs and their use can be sustainable. So far, sun drying is very dependent on the weather and causes fatigue to farmers due to sun exposure. To overcome this, a dryer was designed with the application of participatory principles which is part of the ergonomics application. With the participatory principle, a rotary type dryer was developed for grain drying. Energy sources use rice husks, which are widely available so that they are easy to obtain and inexpensive. The rotary-type dryer design utilizes this biomass by energy conversion using a heat exchanger. It is hoped that this type of tool is cheap and easy to operate so that it can be accepted by small farmers. In addition, small farmers do not experience additional workloads due to sun exposure which has an impact on the risk of fatigue, increasing productivity.