Solar Power and Regenerative Agriculture in Burma

2015 was a very busy year for me personally and I was unable to visit Burma to continue our solar training program. However, now things are in taken care of at home, I am ready to embark on another year's activity of promoting solar technology and training people in its use.  Here are a couple of the projects I plan to follow up on in 2016.

1) Solar Food Dyers: As in many tropical countries, Burma has vast harvests of fruits and vegetables, often much more than can be consumed at harvest time. But, on the other hand, there are also other times of the year when basic food supplies are in short supply. To address this issue, Solar Roots will conduct several trainings in building solar food dryers. This is proven technology, but it is not widespread. To be sure, many farmers in the developing world lay their products as tea, coffee and rice in the sun, in order to dry them, but this is not the best way to do the job. Exposing fruits and vegetables to direct sunlight actually damages the produce by destroying some of the vitamins and nutrients, to say nothing of changing the color! The best way is to heat air with a solar collector, then pass the hot air through the produce, laid out on shelves. That way, one can control the temperature and the produce is never exposed to direct sunlight. Not only will preserving food in this way add to the food supply in lean times, it will also create a high value marketable product for sale domestically, or even for export. There is keen interest in Burma in learning how to do this.

2) Solar Training in the Golden Triangle:  In 2014 I had the great fortune to meet a remarkable man from the Golden Triangle - Pastor Noel. We met a solar training that I was giving in Pyin Oo Lwin and he invited me to give a similar training in his village near Tachilek. The Golden Triangle is a remote area of eastern Burma, close to the border with Laos and Thailand. It is an isolated and poor area that gets its name from the opium cultivation that farmers resort to in order to make ends meet. Although he lives remotely, Noel is the head of the Association of People with Disabilities in Burma. He is working hard to improve the lives of his fellow villagers and he sees the introduction of solar electricity as being key to this goal. Normally an in-depth solar training like this takes about 2 weeks and I will have to carry in all the necessary equipment, as I doubt whether the local market will be well stocked. But I may be pleasantly surprised, as the solar market in Burma has improved greatly in the last 3 years. The choice and quality of solar products go up very year and some brands of solar panels actually offer 10-year warranties!

We are looking forward to a very productive year in 2016, so please follow us by checking in to website at www.solarroots.org for regular updates. Thank you for your onging support of Solar Roots.