ABSTRACT
Post-harvest technologies and food processing are essential links in the food chain. Improved food preservation and processing techniques can reduce losses and increase yields, thus increasing net farm output. This chapter examines one of the oldest food preservation techniques known: drying, and shows how the economics of scale can be the most critical factor in change. It also shows how scaling down - in Kenyan sugar production and Zimbabwean sunflower oil production - can save money and create jobs in the right sort of economic climate. Examples from Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi demonstrate opportunities and problems in scaling up vegetable oil production. Similar issues and others emerge from the development of an oil press in Tanzania, named after its inventor, an engineer working for Appropriate Technology International, Carl Bielenberg. As with the development of the Ghana palm oil press, the Bielenberg Press was like a pebble thrown into a pond.
