ITERRae is a project developing conservation strategies in inter-tropical regions.
The evident lack of infrastructures pushed Pascal and Yasmina Fayet to elaborate an efficient solution to store the harvest in the small village of Niomré, in the Louga region, Senegal.
In West Africa almost half of the harvest is lost every year and, paradoxically, the more they produce the more they lose.
Mustapha Kadri, the secretary-general of the Agence Nationale de la Filière Oignon, states that the annual loss in the onion production, a traditional product of shaelian Africa, starts after only two months since the harvest and the quantity rapidly rise from the 30 to the 60% of the product between the second and the third month of storage.
Combining the capacity of the traditional materials to absorb heat and the use of the radiative cooling, it’s possible to obtain structures maintaining the interior at an adequate temperature to preserve the harvests, thanks to the desert climate: its transparent and dry atmosphere lets the solar radiation to penetrate until the lower strata of the atmosphere and the ground. On the contrary, the earth radiation during the night makes temperature go down, rising the 0°C and generating a strong thermal range. The technology combines a structure composed by changing phase materials absorbing the heat (double banco wall with a woolly insulating strata) and a coffer composed by: an aluminium box full of changing phase material; a polyethylene film; an opaque removable cover, that will be closed during the day and removed during the night.
In non-electrified regions a radiant refrigeration is an opportunity: the system doesn't need any energetical supply; the equipment is completely sustainable and non-polluting; traditional techniques are used to build the big barns. Building these structures permits to create new social and economical conditions and work opportunities to improve people's alimentation and consequently their sanitary conditions.
Finally, the landscape also changes thanks to a new and typically African new typology of building: the fields of Africa have the possibility to become greener with a more intensive farming.
"Le Greniers du Sahel" is a program supported by Pascal and Yasmina Fayet with common aims: environmental protection; support to food safety; creation of new remuneration activities and economical development.
anja visini
http://www.iterrae.org/
http://dailymotion.virgilio.it/video/x7vkhy_ecoact-projet-les-greniers-du-sahel_webcam
http://www.babnet.net/cadredetail-10631.asp
http://s280572833.onlinehome.fr/iterrae/ne3/media/images/dPresseParis1%20ITERRae.pdf
