Machine helps farmers earn more
A farmer demonstrates how to extract sugarcane juice using a machine. FILE PHOTO.
What you need to know:
- Farmers, especially those adding value to their products, will find the food slicer essential. The machines go for between Shs2m and Shs2.5m, depending on the speed and capacity, writes Desire Mbabaali.
The food slicer machine is a fairly portable equipment that is used to slice different foods into crisps or small slices and also extract juice.
Such foods include, but not limited to; sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, plantains (Gonja), cassava, pumpkin, especially for farmers adding value to these products before they sun dry or fry them during the value addition process. It also slices kachumbaali especially if produced in large quantities for example for big restaurants.
It is also ideal for farmers doing large scale farming with acres of cassava they want to sun dry.
This can be used to cut their cassava to a desired thickness making the days they take to sun dry even less. It is ideal for people who pound pumpkin, ginger, beetroot and others such foods.
How it works
To slice chips, the machine comes with two cutters of different sizes which can be fixed onto the opening of the machine to cut different sizes as one may wish.
For crisps, it has an adjustable opening with a knob on the side, where you can adjust the cutting panel to give you sizes of your desire choice, depending on whether you want a thin, think or moderate layer of my crisps.
To operate it, put the electric wire of the machine into a power source. On the side, the machine has an opening where the peeled potatoes or anything one desires to cut, is poured.
100 kilogrammes of food can be cut in less than 15 minutes. At the end of the day, you will have uniformly cut products. When it comes to its efficiency, it can cut over two tonnes a day.
For example, it can cut a big bucket of Irish potatoes in just a few minutes, which not only saves time, but also reduces on the work that would have been done by more than five people. It reduces it to just one person who is needed operate the machine.
The machine is electric, with a motor below it that moves the parts to do the cutting. There is also one that uses petrol and thus, has an engine.
However, the engine-driven machine has to be operated with the utmost care because if a single drop of petrol goes into the food being cut, it leaves it smelling the fuel. Using an electric one thus is highly recommended.
Price
The one that uses petrol and an engine costs Shs2m, whereas the electric one goes for Shs2.5m. Both prices are negotiable.
This equipment can be found at UMA show grounds in Lugogo.
