Food Dehydration Process - Methods of Dehydrating

Dehydrated fruits, vegetables and meat items are getting famous among most of the people. Therefore these products create a huge market all around the world. Therefore it is good to know about dehydration process and various methods that can be used to dehydrate food products. 

Sun drying

This is the general practice since many years. Still in most of our home we used to dry things using this sun drying method. Sun drying is very effective in places with long periods of hot sun specially countries near to equator. Also anywhere with a minimum temperature of 28 – 30 C with less relative humidity is suitable. Normally foods take several days to dry thoroughly. Place on a mesh screen and cover with a second screen to protect from dirt and animals.

Air drying

Same as sun drying, air drying is also a common practice of dehydrating foods. The main difference is that air drying usually takes place in the shade. This is suitable for foods which need less heat to dry such as leaves and herbs.

Solar drying

An advance method of sun drying. Since there are no heaters or fans to circulate the air, solar drying uses zero electricity. Solar dryers work outdoors and can be designed as per the required size, and shape.

Solar Dryer Arrangement

Oven drying

Your home oven can be used to slowly dry food at temperatures around 60 C. Normally ovens are designed for higher temperature applications. However you can use this method for some home made quick dried foods. Make sure to maintain temperature around 60 C or below. Otherwise foods will be cooked instead of drying.

Dehydrators

With the market advancement of dehydrated food, special appliances were designed for commercial dehydration purpose. These dehydrators equipped with fans and elements to quickly and efficiently dry your food. These dehydrators can be powered with electricity, Gas, Kerosene, wood or any other method.

Dehydrating in a microwave oven

If you have a small amount of food to dehydrate, you can consider using your microwave set on ‘defrost’ to dry fruits and herbs. In general, microwaved fruits will take 20 to 40 minutes to dry fully, but keep checking on them so you don’t overdo it. 

 

If you are planning to make lot of dehydrated foods it is advisable to find a commercial dehydrator with more surface area as the amount of time take to dehydration process is anywhere from 5 to 14 hours. Properly packed, dehydrated fruits can last up to five years and vegetables up to ten. If you are going to consume non-meat items within a year, keep them in freezer bags or reusable storage bags with the air squeezed out. For long-term preservation, vacuum packing is the best.

Five Ways to Find Buyers for Agriculture Products

This is really a hard part in the business. Without buyers you do not have business. First of all you should decide whether you are going to target retails buyers/customers or Bulk buyers/customers. Depending on that, your strategies for persuading buyers will vary. Though there are many ways to find buyers, most common five methods of finding buyers are; 

1. Direct Negotiations with Shops and Supermarkets .
2. Through Social Media
3. E-commerce Websites/Platforms
4. Agriculture Exhibitions / Trade Fairs
5. Relevant State Departments

1. Direct Negotiations with Shops and Supermarkets. – You can use your personal contacts and negotiate with some shops and supermarkets to sell your products. Obviously you have to give them some commission. This is good for small scale businesses to target the retail market. In some supermarkets, they register suppliers in every year through their website or manual applications. You can register there and start business with them.

2. Through Social Media – Social media can be used easily to find buyers for your products. But this is also suitable for small scale businesses. You can start Facebook page, promote and sell your products through online delivery system. Also there are some Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups which create for import and export purpose of agriculture products. You can join these groups and catch some international buyers too. Anyway better to be careful in these groups since there are some fake buyers. 

3. E-commerce Websites/Platforms – We all are familiar with this kind of websites. There are websites for B2B and also for B2C. You can easily register as a supplier or seller and start selling your products. Normally all of these websites provide free registration. However that free registration may not be sufficient enough to attract buyers at the beginning. So you may have to get paid membership, or paid advertisements to attract some buyer. Top 5 eCommerce web sites suitable for agriculture products are;

i. Alibaba 
ii. Go4worldbusiness
iii. IndiaMart
iv. Globalsources
v. ebay

4. Agriculture Exhibitions / Trade Fairs – Participating for Agriculture Exhibitions and trade fairs expose your products to really interested buyers. This method is very effective than others. Find agriculture exhibitions near you or international exhibitions and you can have good chance to catch some real buyers. Normally in most of the countries there are many exhibitions per year. 

5. Relevant State Departments – If you are going for large scale businesses and export businesses, normally in each country there are some state departments such as Export Development Boards to help and guide. You can talk to them and get some information or links about international buyers. However if you are going to find buyers in this path, your products should comply with international standards and certificates since these are diplomatic links. 

These are the all common method you can use to find buyer for your agriculture products. Try these methods and make good business in future.  

How to Select a Land or Building for an Agriculture Business

Selecting a suitable property is directly involved with the cost of products. Main property you need for an agriculture business is a land, if you are going to start an agriculture farming business or building if you are thinking about a value added products. 

Regardless of the property type you have to consider below factors when selecting. 

1. Distance to end market and raw materials – If you select a place that is so far from your market or raw material supply, you have to add extra transport cost and wastage cost to the production. Therefore it is recommended to minimize the distance from your market and raw material supply to your factory or farm.  

2. Infrastructure availability - Main infrastructures you need for your business are Electricity, Transport and Water. Therefore when selecting a property you have to check whether these basic infrastructures are available or not. In addition to these, Telephone, Internet, Laboratories may be needed depending on your business nature. You have to check those required infrastructure availability too. 

3. Surrounding Environment Condition – Surrounding area may be close to a protected area such as bird sanctuary, national park, etc. In this case you may have to adjust your business process according to the guidelines given by relevant authorities. Sometimes your property may be close to a rural village where poor people live; in this case you can have benefits by recruiting some cheap, unskilled labors. 

4. Future Value of the Property – Most of the time value of the property increases with the time since the population grows and the demand increases. However there are some cases, which decrease your future value of the property. As an example, if any other business starts near to your property which emits some harmful gas, waste or smell, then your property value will be decrease with the time. Therefore better to get an idea about what is happening near your property. Anyway if you can gain some supernormal profit and recover your investment within short period, no need to worry about the property value. 

5. Method of Acquiring – There are many ways to acquire the property you need such as Short term lease, Long term Lease, Purchasing, etc. That depends on your business plan. If you are planning long term business in that property, better to go for purchasing or long term lease (20 -30 Years). It will reduce future problems. In the other hand you can lease the property for short term purpose if you are not planning to continue the business in same place. 

6. Distance to other support services – It is better if you can find a place where other support services also close by. Other services mean the Banks, Apartments, Supermarkets, Hospitals, and Governments offices. Your property value as well as your investments also will increase with all of these services. 

It will be not easy to find a property which fulfills all the above factors. However you have to study all the above factors properly and select the optimum solution when selecting a property for the business. If you consider all of these factors, the property itself can generate good profit in future.

How to Start a Successful Agriculture Business

There are many businesses in the world that anyone can do with some risk. Starting a low risk business is a wise decision. At present many businesses face many challenges such as global economic tensions, wars, pandemics, political issues, technological issues, etc. However, no matter the situation, all the people in the world need food and agriculture products as basic needs to survive. Since the population grows, market demand for the agriculture products is rising with the time. Therefore in this situation it is wise decision to start an agriculture business.  In this article you will find the basic factors you should know before starting an agriculture business. 

What are the things you need to start a successful Agriculture Business?  

1.    Business Idea
2.    Knowledge and Technology
3.    Suitable Property
4.    Investment
5.    Market
6.    Risk Management

How to Select an Agri Business Idea?

This is the most important part of your business. If you select the right idea, you will be success in future.  To get an idea about a suitable business you can check below factors. 

• Potential Business Area – If your area has favorable weather condition for farming and if it is possible to find suitable lands for low cost, you should consider about farming. Or else, you can think about value added product business. You can purchase fruits, diary or vegetables from farmers and make some value added products or processed products which also have good profit and market. 

• Market - your product or service business idea should be marketable. If you come up with brilliant spicy food idea in non-spicy society, your idea will not be marketable. If you are planning for a long term business it is important to see future market trends as well.

• Risk and Profit – In general condition people say “Higher the Risk, Higher the Return”. However you should consider about the potential risk and profit you can earn. As a startup business it is advisable to go for low risk businesses than the high risk. Anyway it is entirely up to you. 

Selecting a suitable idea will take some time, yet it is important to study all of those factors and select the business which has highest profit relevant to the risk involve. For this you can even get some expert’s advice to make sure whether your idea is viable or not. 

Knowledge and Technology

After the idea, you must have the required knowledge for the business or knowledge should be available to acquire easily. Most of the time you can get conventional agriculture knowledge from relevant government departments, or there are many websites, you tube channels and blog sites which give you the basic knowledge on conventional agriculture businesses. 

However If you are looking for advance agriculture technologies or processing methods, you have to find a way to access that knowledge. There may be some government institutions to help you or you may have to find your own ways to acquire that knowledge. 

Acquiring proper knowledge and technology is important to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your business which help you to stay competitive in the market. 

Selecting a Suitable Property

Selecting a suitable property is directly involved with the cost of products. There may be few properties required for your business. Those required properties can be categorized as;

1. Land or Building Depending on the Business type. You can select a land if you are going to start an agriculture farming business or building if you are thinking about a value added product. This is just identify your basic requirement, however when selecting a land or building for a business there are many other factors to consider. 

2. Required Machinery – As per the selected technology you may have to purchase some machinery for the business. As an example, if you are going to make some dehydrated foods, you have to purchase a dehydrator, Automatic packing machine, etc. However, depending on the area some works can be done manually if cheap labor is available. So you can reduce the properties. 

You have to study all the above factors properly and select the optimum solution when selecting a property for the business. 

Investment

After selecting the required properties you can have a good idea about the investment you need to start the business. There are many ways to do the investment. Most common methods are;

1. Investing your own savings

2. Bank Loans

3. Joint Partnerships

However the investment method also depends on many factors. If the business is new to you, better to invest small amount first and study the business while doing it. Also you can start with manual works, and move in to automated high technology with higher investment later. This will reduce your risk of investment. But if you are planning for large scale production, then definitely you have to go with higher investment and high technology at the beginning

Market

“How to capture the local and export market” is the most important thing in your business.  As long as you satisfy your customers they will stay with you and they will loyal to you too. Therefore you should do a market survey and get an idea about your market and market behavior. It is better not to target large market segment at the beginning and start the business with a small market. Later with the development of your business you can expand the market too. 

This market study should be done at the beginning of the business and your production planning should be in line with the market requirement. If you do over production, your products waste, and you may have to spend additional cost to store them. If you do under production, another competitor gets good chance to enter in to your market. Therefore market study plays a main role in your business.

Risk Management

Every business has some level of risk for the investment. Therefore you have to consider the risk and take necessary steps to reduce the risk. Some of the common and effective methods of risk management are;

1. Insure the Business

2. Share the investment (Joint ventures)

3. Combine 2-3 products/businesses

4. Creating a good business portfolio

Insurance is the basic method. You can easily insure your business. However you have to study the insurance policies first, as some insurance companies add some unreasonable conditions to the insurance policy. 

Those are basic things required to start an Agriculture Business. 

Organic Insecticides

At present, Organic farming methods are spreading fast around the world as a pandemic. The main reason for moving towards the organic farming is the increase in non-transferable diseases like diabetes, various types of cancers, high blood pressure, Heart diseases and kidney diseases. When practicing organic farming, it is important to use organic pesticides instead of chemical/artificial pesticides to achieve the real objective of the organic farming. This article explains how to make and use simple recipe of organic insecticide which will helpful to repel mealybug, grasshoppers, stem borers, aphids and many other insects. These organic insecticides can be used in Papaya cultivation, Green Chili Cultivation, Vegetable Cultivation and in many more cultivations.

Ingredients

kohomba

•       Dried Tobacco leaves  
•       Raw Neem/Kohomba Leaves
•       Soap
•       Water

Procedure

• Take equal amount of tobacco and Neem leaves.
• Put them into a blender, mix some hot water and crush them properly
• Boil them few minutes
• Add little amount of soap and mix before it cool down
• Filter the juice from refuse 

• 

  Insecticide liquid
•      Add similar amount of water (1:1 Ration)
•      Fill it into a spray bottle and spray on plants

This video explain above steps clearly and you can have a good understanding about the procedure. 

It is not difficult to make this insecticide at home and make sure to spray properly on both sides of the plant leaves. This organic insect repel will help you to control insects in your farm.

Cassava Products 1 - Cassava Chips

Cassava is a tropical root crop rich in starch that is consumed by over 500 million people all over the world. It is a food that content high amount of carbohydrates among all the common staple foods. Though cassava can be eat directly as a food, cassava is widely used to make many other products like cassava flour, Chips, animal food, alcohol, sweeteners, bio-degradable products and starches for sizing papers, etc. farmers can become manufacturers my producing one or few of these products and earn some more profit than selling raw cassava. This article will explain few of these products and general manufacturing process of each product to give basic ideas to farmers who are willing to become manufacturers in future.

Cassava Chips

Cassava Chips

Cassava chips are the most common product that we can find in the market. Also it is very easy to make cassava chips, yet few farmers are doing it. Most of the time, other intermediate persons produce these chips and make huge profit out of it. Making process is very simple and described below. 

• Select some medium size fresh cassava roots. Smaller ones and larger ones are not suitable for this. Better to select cassava roots which has diameter of 10 -18 mm. however you can choose the chips size as per the market requirement. 

• Clean them and peel off properly. Cut off both ends of the root and wash them again.

• Cut the root into small slices. You should careful to maintain 1-2 mm thickness for slices and the same thickness for each slice. Otherwise the crispy quality will be less in your cassava chips. You can use simple handmade machine or electrical machine to cut these roots into slices. see below video and you can have brief idea of cassava chip machine.

• Now you can deep fry these slices in pre-heated coconut oil (palm oil or vegetable oil also can be used) until the chips become golden colour.

  

  Golden Colour Cassava Chips

• Take them out after they become golden colour and let them rest on a clean paper or strainer until excess oil get out.

• Finally you can mix salt, chili powder and fried curry leaves as you want and pack them to sell. There are many ingredients used in cassava chips for commercial business. However some of these chemical ingredients are not suitable for the health. therefore it is advisable to use natural spices to make them spicy. 

Ingredients used in Cassava chips 

Though the process is easy, cassava chip has a big market in each country. You can produce these chips in any scale as per your market and still you can earn some good profit.

Ginger Products 1 - Biscuits

Although ginger is a common spice specially in Asian region, it has been used for many countries all over the world. However, it is a diverse spice in India and China and it is mainly used in cuisines in Asia. Not only as a spice ginger can be used to make many food products and medicines which give a real value addition to the harvest. Also making ginger related products can be considered as a post harvest management technique. Let's learn more about the most common ginger products in the world and farmers can become a manufacturers by manufacturing any of these products and make some more profit. 

Ginger Biscuits

Ginger Biscuits

Ginger is used in the baking industry back in the fifteenth century. During this time, bread crumbs were used in baking of ginger biscuits and ginger spices and honey were commodities believed to be for the rich community only. Anyway today, ginger biscuits are consumed by people of all the classes and these tasty little ginger biscuits can be made in to any desirable shape.

Ginger biscuit has a complete range of tasty from savory lentil(dal) to sweet. Raw ginger root has a fiery taste. Normally ginger can be purchased as ground ginger, fresh ginger, preserved in syrup, crystallized or pickled. In order to make ginger biscuits, ground ginger is widely used. Some biscuits manufacturers come up with unique biscuit recipes by varying the ginger content and type in the biscuit, which gives unique identity to their business in the industry. The general way of making ginger biscuit is as follows.

How to Make Ginger Biscuits

• Mix two tea spoonful of ginger powder with 50 grams of butter, 100 grams of soft brown sugar, two eggs and four tea spoonfuls of golden syrup at room temperature.

• Mix 500 grams of plain baking flour with two tea spoonfuls of all spices and half two tea spoonful of baking soda (bicarbonate soda).
• mixed all ingredient later and make sure to mix thoroughly until they are completely mixed. Wrap them (or cover) and leave it to rest in a fridge about one hour and thirty minutes.
• Take the dough mixture in the fridge and roll it until the thickness become around 5mm on a flat surface. lightly put some flour on the surface. 
• Cut the rolled dough mixture into the shapes you prefer and place it on a non-stick baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven for about 8-10 minutes or until the biscuit color becomes golden.

These biscuits can be sold commercially. The biscuit business has huge potential market as they are consumed in almost every household daily. The demand for ginger biscuits is very high in every social class whether in urban areas or rural areas. Adding some innovative, creative and unique packaging, and unique flavors will make high demanded product in the market.

Packet of Ginger Biscuit