ABSTRACT
Open-air sun drying has been used since time imme-
morial to dry plants, seeds, fruits, meat, fish, wood,
and other agricultural or forest products as a means of
preservation. However, for large-scale production the
limitations of open-air drying are well known. Among
these are high labor costs, large area requirement, lack
of ability to control the drying process, possible deg-
radation due to biochemical or microbiological reac-
tions, insect infestation, and so on. In order to benefit
from the free and renewable energy source provided by
the sun several attempts have been made in recent
years to develop solar drying mainly for preserving
agricultural and forest products.
