This research belongs to the framework of appropriate technologies for sustainable rural development. This work characterizes process of heating air and drying capacity of an active solar dehydrator of forced convection distributive type to protect maximum of agricultural products from external agents. This system is based on use of solar energy to heat air entering drying chamber using a flat solar collector. To characterize its efficiency, a mathematical model based on an energy balance was developed where variables are climatic conditions of place temperature, humidity of environment, solar irradiation on inclined plane, wind speed in addition to design parameters of collector, flow of air and characteristics of materials used. Using an iterative method, they have been validated with experimental results from literature obtaining small relative errors (less than 6%). Once inlet and ou...