I ran across “mandela corks” in a recent IRCSAT publication, but I haven’t been able to find more info on how to make them, besides some vague descriptions. Does anyone have a video tutorial or publication they can share?
Perplexity AI brings up some promising guidance. We don’t use the method personally as our harvests are just for our household and we stagger them to get harvests in little by little.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-to-i-make-a-mandela-cork-w-F9KWzMxsSKupc17lpmsY7Q
ABSTRACT
Timely drying of groundnuts is important after harvest. In most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, moisture content reduction is practically achieved by solar drying. In particular, the groundnuts are traditionally cured in the field using the inverted windrow drying technique. Recently, the Mandela cock technique, a ventilated stack of groundnut plants with a chimney at the center, has been introduced in the southern Africa region with the aim of reducing moisture content and the risk of aflatoxin contamination.
- A mixed-design ANOVA showed that the Mandela cock groundnut drying technique led to significantly (p < 0.001) higher aflatoxin levels in groundnut seed compared to the traditional inverted windrow drying (5.7 μg/kg, geometric mean vs 2.5 μg/kg in 2016 and 37.6 μg/kg vs 8.4 μg/kg in 2017).