Three third-year BS Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (BSABE) students from Visayas State University (VSU) won the Regional Young Farmers Challenge (YFC)–Intercollegiate Component, a virtual pitch defense competition held on September 2 with their farmer-centered solar drying innovation.
Arthur Jay Cajes Javier, Alwyn Librando Obingayan, and Francis Jared Talaid Rubillos of AniKultura bested two other teams from Eastern Visayas with their innovation, “SolaDry: Human-Centric, Solar-Assisted-Hybrid Flatbed Dryer for Smallholder Filipino Farmers.”
Javier served as Chief Executive Officer and Lead Engineer, Obingayan as Chief Operations Officer, and Rubillos as Chief Financial Officer.it
The competition was held virtually, with AniKultura presenting from the VSU Renewable Energy Research Center (RERC) before the Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Field Office VIII panel in Tacloban City.
AniKultura is mentored by Engr. Jucel Marie T. Guatlo of the VSU Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering and Engr. Feliciano L. Sinon Jr., director of the VSU Renewable Energy Research Center.
Built for Small Farmers
SolaDry was developed after the team consulted five farmers in Leyte and identified the challenges smallholders face in drying palay.
In an interview with Amaranth, Javier shared that some farmers rely on roadside sun-drying, leaving their harvests vulnerable to rain and price deductions, while others avoid commercial dryers due to concerns over rice quality. Small harvests can also fall below the capacity of existing mechanical dryers.
“Di man ma-machine kay gamay raman,” one farmer told the team.
SolaDry addresses these challenges through a farmer-centered, solar-assisted hybrid flatbed dryer with a 1.2-by-0.7-meter drying bed, a 50-kilogram batch capacity, and an approximate output of 100 kilograms per day.
The system combines direct sunlight, a UV-plastic greenhouse canopy, and solar-thermal forced hot-air convection. An ESP32 microcontroller regulates temperature, while load cells track grain weight as moisture is removed. The system keeps drying temperatures below 50 degrees Celsius to help protect rice quality and improve drying precision.
Viscan Innovation
SolaDry was designed, fabricated, assembled, and tested at the VSU Renewable Energy Research Center (RERC), with support from the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (DABE) and VSU’s Technology Business Incubator (TBI) through Project LIYAB.
RERC provided fabrication space, facility access, and technical guidance, while DABE Department Head Engr. Nilo Leorna also supported the project’s development.
Project LIYAB provided the team’s initial funding for the prototype. AniKultura plans to file its CAD drawings and Invention Disclosure Form with the university, with VSU’s Intellectual Property and Technology Support Office handling the intellectual property process.
“We want to be clear that we did not simply receive support. We welded, wired and programmed this machine ourselves, in our own university's research centers. But we could not have done it anywhere else,” Javier said.
Representing Eastern Visayas
AniKultura will represent Region VIII and the Viscan community at the National Young Farmers Challenge in Koronadal City in February 2027.
With the ₱250,000 regional grant, the team plans to conduct formal validation with the Marcos Farmers Cooperative Association and other cooperatives in Baybay City while fabricating and field-testing its first production units.
The team also plans to scale up the dryer’s capacity and further refine its automated temperature controls and weight-tracking system.
“Ultimately, our primary goal at the national level is to bring home the national championship for Region 8, secure greater investment, and take the first steps toward making AniKultura a nationally adopted agricultural solution,” Javier said.