Cassava is one of the staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa (Duah et al., 2016). Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world, about 59.5 million tons (FAOSTAT, 2019). Yellow cassava is a hybrid of cassava, whose flesh color is yellow and contains high carotenoid content (Vimala et al., 2011). The consumption of yellow cassava is highly encouraged in sub-Saharan Africa and some developing countries in order to tackle vitamin A deficiencies in the region (Talsma et al., 2016). Drying is a common method to preserve the shelf-life of yellow cassava after harvesting. However, convective drying due to elevated temperature and long drying duration has been found to negatively affect the textural, structural, and nutritional qualities of food

This work evaluated the thin layer drying kinetics of pretreated cocoyam slices (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) in a convective hot air dryer. Seven thin layer theoretical and empirical models widely used in describing the drying behaviour of agricultural products were fitted to the experimental data in order to select the appropriate model for predicting the drying kinetics of cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium). The Page model showed the best fit under certain drying conditions based on the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and sum of squares error (SSE). Comparison was made between the experimental and model predicted moisture ratio by non-linear regression analysis. Furthermore, the effect of drying temperature and pretreatment on the best model constants was evaluated. Consequently, the page model showed an excellent fit with the experimental data (R 2 > 0.99 and SSE < 0.0010) for the drying temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 °C at different sample pretreatments; untreated (raw), water soaked and brine soaked respectively. Thus, page model can adequately predict the drying kinetics of cocoyam under pretreatment conditions.

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