Readers' Comments on the Feats Achieved by Agricultural Engineers in Nigeria

Readers' Comments

It is another time for feedbacks from readers of this Column. The last 3-series article on the feats achieved by Agricultural Engineers in Nigeria solicited many comments from readers. A notable comment on the issue came from the National Chairman of Nigerian Institution of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE), a division of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr Babatunde Adewumi, a renowned Professor of Agricultural Engineering in Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. In addition to the comments, one Engineer called my attention to an omission of the name of Engr. Prof. Peter Onwualu, fnse, the immediate Past DG, RMRDC, Abuja among the list of "Grandfather Engineers" mentioned in my concluding part of the article. Yes, it was really an omission because Prof. Onwualu has been responsible directly or indirectly for the development of several prototype agricultural machineries across many research development centres and institutions. One day, this column will focus on the breakthroughs of this giant achiever.   Before then, let me start with a backlog of the previous comments on Centre for Dryland Agriculture, Bayero University, Kano. Another thing, members can read my previous articles in my blog. www.breakthroughwithmkothman.blogspot. com, Happy reading and have a wonderful weekend.

Bayero University Kano: Actively Transforming Drylands of West African Sub-Region through Partnerships

Dear M. K. Othman

Permit me to thank the management of LEADERSHIP FRIDAY for creating this unique column to create awareness of innovations in Science and Technology. The article on "Centre for Dryland Agriculture" is a master piece. The Centre is certainly achieving one of the objectives of establishing Bayero University, Kano; solving problem of the community and nation through transformation of dryland. I however wish to give some advices to the Centre; 1) The Centre should have internal organizing structure to make its activities durable and sustainable especially the grants received from donor agencies are exhausted. 2) Core staff of the Centre need to be trained in different disciplines of dry agriculture,  3)The Centre should engage in improvement of indigenous technologies as well as coping strategy of the dry land and environment. Finally, there should be deliberate effort to develop knowledge system involving knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilization for national development.

Prof. Ibrahim B. Mohammed, ibabamohd@yahoo.co.uk   

Technological Feats of Agricultural Engineers in Nigeria

Dear M. K. Othman

Thanks for beaming your light on the achievements of Agricultural Engineers, your passion for writing, as a seasoned academic with practical approach has made the write up on your own profession - Agricultural Engineering very interesting to read and comprehend. The three set of articles are just introductory, with an inexhaustible list of achievements, Agricultural Engineers have developed prototype machines with locally available materials in all aspects of agriculture; production, processing and utilization. But, the questions yet to be answered as you rightly asked in your last article are: When shall all these innovation be a common item for the end users, especially our local farmers? When shall relevant stake holders unite to transform these inventions into realities?  Is our Government ready to play her central and critical roles? If the Buhari administration could be pragmatic to set the national priorities and implement right, I am sure we shall soon get there. We need a right thinking, pro-active, willing and right-acting Government to make the common man in Nigeria to eat the fruit of the land and be proud to be a Nigerian. Agricultural Engineers are willing partners for the mechanization of agriculture in Nigeria. let me end by thanking the management of Leadership Newspaper for creating this Column.

Engr. Prof. B. A. Adewumi fnse, fniae, adewumiba@gmail.com

Dear M. K. Othman

Thanks for writing  this article "Technological Feats of Agricultural Engineers in Nigeria". Remember though, Prof Udigbo of University of Nsukka did so much on fabrication of so many prototypes agricultural machineries produced and tested. Some of his works were even "perfected" by him at Cranfield Silsoe in United Kingdom and shipped back to Nigeria. You need to reach out to him and similar people for showcasing their modest achievements to the public arena.  Now that dollar is too strong, we have to develop these achievements/feats to the highest level so quickly to take our rightful position in the Nigerian economy and I hope your wonderful article will address it. Well done Prof.

 Engr Umar B. Bindir PhD (Cranfield) ubindir@yahoo.com

Dear M. K. Othman

Praise be to Almighty Allah for a good job Sir. I have always wondered who and when will our (Agricultural Engineers) messiah come to stand and speak up for us and with us? There is light at the end of the tunnel. Please and for God's sake don't relent because you stand as a symbol of hope for the upcoming generation of Agricultural Engineers and other professionals. Kudus to YOU Sir

Engr Muhammad Muhammad Abdulsalam,

 abdulsalammuhammadmuhammad@gmail.com

Dear Othman

It is pleasant to appreciate your articles in Leadership Friday and your blog. Kindly keep it up

Rabiu Abubakar Babura,  dankanya912@gmail.com

Dear M. K. Othman

Dr M. K. Othman’s column in the LEADERSHIP Newspaper is exposing interesting achievements recorded in field of engineering for agriculture and other profession. Of note is the exposure he gave to NCAM (National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization) located at Idofian village near Ilorin, Kwara state. The centre has been very wonderful in her effort to develop agriculture through mechanization. The centre has been leading in research and development in all fields of agriculture and engineering. It is important for readers to know that NCAM,  in performance of her functions aimed at realizing the set of objectives for which she was established, the centre has recorded tremendous achievements. Some of these achievements include design and development of:

a)    Seed treatment drum for chemically treating seeds prior to storage or planting

b)   Hand seed planter for planting such grains as maize, soya bean guinea corn, etc.

c)    Manual seed and fertilizer broadcaster

d)   Improved long handle weeding hoe. A device for weeding and hoeing

e)   Rotary hand push weeding hoe

f)    Cassava lifter for uprooting cassava tubers

g)   Cassava peeling tool

h)   Pedal operated cassava grater

i)     Tractor mounted groundnut digger

j)    Groundnut decorticator

k)   Far level parboiler

l)     Integrated palm fruit processing equipment which is capable of caring out the following unit operations, sterilization, digestion and clarifying.

m)   Maize shellers

n)    Seed dehuller

o)    Melon washer

p)   Multi-purpose thresher

q)    Okra slicer

r)    Vegetable slicer

s)    Manual yam chipping machine

t)    Motorized melon sheller

In the recent exhibition organized by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council in Abuja, NCAM stand drew the highest crowd. In fact the Minister of Science and Technology was fascinated that he climbed and operated NCAM made tractor. In addition to the achievements he presented on cassava planter, I will like to add that a two row automatic cassava planter has been developed by Engr Pro E.U Odigboh of the Department of Agricultural and Bio-resources Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Engr. J.C. Adama, (PhD) adamajoseph@yahoo.com

The newspaper version of the article

Technological Feats of Agricultural Engineers in Nigeria III

Technological Feats of Agricultural Engineers in Nigeria III

Weeding operation is one of the most tedious operation compared to other farm operations. This is why weeding is unattractive to many people especially the youths because of drudgery. Agricultural Engineers have made tremendous effort in developing animal drawn mechanical weeders. Two examples are suffice; IAR  Animal Drawn Straddle Row Weeder and EMCOT Rotary Weeder with  capacities of weeding  a quarter of hectare per an hour each. Obviously, the target of this weeding technology is small and medium scales farmers who constitute more than 80% of the farming population.

Harvest is the proceeding operation after weeding. Harvest of farm produce is equally important and tedious when done manually. Inefficient and untimely harvest can result to produce loss to as much as 30 to 45 %. Harvest is a high labour operation because of the need to do it timely. The development of crop harvesters have brought about a remarkable reduction in the drudgery, labour requirement and production cost of crops. In Nigeria, Agricultural Engineers have developed harvesters for all crops; cereal, legumes, fruits and tubers, respectively.  Examples of this feat are scattered in some Universities, Polytechnics, Research centres and few local fabricators across the nation. In Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof. R. O. Akinbamowo and his colleagues designed and fabricated a tractor – mounted harvester for cocoyam using locally available materials. Field tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of the machine. The overall performance of the machine was the successfully harvesting of mass of tubers with negligible number of tuber damages. Akinbamowo's  was published by Australian Journal of Agricultural Engineering of 2011 (vol. 2 no. 3). Another outstanding work was that of Dr. A. O. Ojomo, M. O. Ale and O. G. Olajide of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo, who developed a cowpea harvester. The harvester was designed, constructed and evaluated for its performance. The machine was fabricated with high carbon steel with an output capacity of 120kg/h. The overall performance of the harvester exhibited the highest functional efficiency of 93.75%, quality performance efficiency of 81.21%, field loss of 3.4% and shattered loss of 6.66%. The harvester was found to be statically and dynamically stable and thus was able to withstand vibration. This innovation was similarly published in Vol. 5 no. 10 of Asian Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Engineering is a global profession, solutions are globally sought to address local problems. Thus, the solution to harvest of oil palm fruits was sought from Germany-based manufacturers C. Woermann Nig. Limited who used the relevant engineering and agronomic data of oil  palms for the successful development of adjustable harvester for mechanized Harvesting of Palm Oil in Nigeria. The problem of palm oil harvesting is enormous is best captured by Mr. Samuel Fadare,  a researcher at Self-Help and Rural Development Association (SHERDA), Niger Delta, Nigeria. He stated “I was involved in carrying out PIND’s palm oil scoping study, and we discovered that one of the major constraints of oil palm industry in Nigeria is harvesting of palm trees’ fresh-fruit bunches (FFB), 50% of FFB are wasted for want of climbers and the cost involved. That’s why this technology is important, because it can reduce the drudgery involved in harvesting. Presently, all our processing and milling equipment are underutilized because of the tough period; right now, the mills are at 40% in-store capacity. It’s not that we don’t have FFB, but getting them harvested quickly and processed and in store is a problem”. This is why the introduction of oil palm harvester received tremendous applause from the stakeholders. The demonstration of the Nigerian initiative, German manufactured harvester was done at the National Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) in Benin City, Edo State, on January 28th, 2014. The occasion  saw the result of the linkages between Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), German agro-technology firm and palm oil sector stakeholders to improve the efficiency of not just harvesting of palm fruits, but of the palm oil sector as a whole. The event was witnessed by 187 participants from various stakeholders.

Threshing operation is followed after harvest. There are several threshers of most of agricultural crops produced in all the Agro-geological zones of Nigeria. These threshers are designed and fabricated by Agricultural Engineers for the use of Nigerian farmers and elsewhere. The most recent feat in threshing technology is achieved by Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) based in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The breakthrough of IAR is the transformation of its complex and low capacity Multi-Crop Thresher to simple, robust, efficient and high capacity machine. The new prototype machine specifically designed to thresh sorghum, millet and soybean can also shell maize making it more versatile and cost effective for farmers and hire service operators. The machine performance in terms of output capacity, threshing and cleaning efficiencies are 410 kg/h, 99.6 % and 98.4 % for sorghum; 472 kg/h, 99.3 % and 94.9 % for millet; and 200 kg/h, 100 % and 89 % for soybean, respectively. This machine is unique when compared with other available machines that can only thresh effectively one or maximum of two crops with lots of grain damage and waste. The losses due to visible grain damage and scatter loss for this machine are 3 % and 4.2 % for sorghum; 0.01 % and 10.5 % for millet; and 0.01% and 4.2 % for soybean, respectively. Development is still ongoing to improve the machine performance and also include other crops such as wheat and rice.

One can continue to mention innovations and breakthroughs achieved by Agricultural Engineers in the last four decades without exhaustive them. However, there are few other technologies developed by Agricultural Engineers and they are equally important to humanity that need to be mentioned in this article. one of them is Manually operated  Duplex Piston Pump developed by Engr Mansir Abubakar of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. A manually operated duplex piston pump has been constructed from locally available materials. The pump is operated by a single individual and could discharge up to 20liter/minute of water from a suction head of up to 2.5m to a delivery head of 1.5 m. The pump is gear driven through a handle. The driven gear drives a crank mechanism that ensures that when one piston is sucking the other delivers water. The two suction pipes from the cylinders are joined to a common pipe that goes to the Well. Similarly, the two delivery pipes are joined to a common delivery pipe  for discharge.  Hence there is a relatively a smooth flow of water from the pumps as there is a continuous flow from each revolution of the lever. In its present state the pump could be operated by  a person above 15 years.  With little modification in the drive mechanism  it  can be  operated  by children between the ages of 8 to 15 years. There was equally  another innovation developed by the same Engineer; Engr M. S. Abubakar; it is "One-liter Squat Flush Toilet" . This is a toilet that needs just about a liter of water to flush down the solid waste of an adult. A  60 liter water tank supported   at an elevation ensures gravity flow of water through   a metering  mechanism to a one liter container. It uses self weight of users to open or close a toilet –collecting mechanism. It is simply operated by pressing down a pedal with a leg (or 2 legs) when the user is in a squatting  position.  The pressed pedals actuate a mechanism which opens a sealed inlet  for the stool. After the user has finished easing himself, all he needs to do is to pull a rope which will deliver one liter of water over the  stool down a slanted evacuation pipe. By lifting his leg from the pedal the user automatically releases the mechanism which will now close the sealed inlet for the stool and thereby blocking    any odours coming from the evacuation pipe. The evacuation pipe is connected to longer pipes which empty their contents in the septic tank by gravity flow. The toilet is suitable for public uses where the distance from the toilet to the septic tank is not more than 5m.

 These are few of the achievements recorded and it is evident that Nigeria is blessed with human resources. Most of these achievements were made by young engineers, some of them as trainees or "baby engineers". I have deliberately refused to mention the feats achieved by our well experienced Engineers; "grandfather" engineers such as Profs. Makanjola, Odigbo, Lasisi, Lucas, Igbeka, Oni, Talabi, Faborode, Adewumi, Abubakar, Ajayi, Adekoya, Drs. Bindir, Musa, Engr Azogu and many others too numerous to mention. These are Engineers of international refutes and thank God, they are still alive; perhaps retired but not tired. The question is "despite these achievements, significant number of Nigerians are not aware of these achievements and very few users are accessible to such technologies, why?". The answer to this question can be searched by the stakeholders with the active facilitation of our Honorable Ministers of Agriculture, Science and Technology and Water Resources. For us to benefit from the mantra of change, it is important to create effective linkage between innovators and users. Honourable Ministers, the ball is court.  

Newspaper version of the article

Technological Feats of Agricultural Engineers in Nigeria II

Technological Feats of Agricultural Engineers in Nigeria II

Dryers and Solar Cookers

Nigeria, one of the Tropical countries is blessed with plentiful sunshine all the year round. In a research work led by Prof. R. N. Kaul of blessed memory in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in the 19970s, it was reported that Nigeria received an average amount of 490 w/m2/day of solar power. This made Nigeria to be a country with high potential for the development of solar energy. On a one hectare piece of land with an assumed fifty percent reception efficiency of solar power, Nigeria has a potential of tapping a huge amount of 2.45 megawatts of solar energy. Again, it was also reported that the maximum amount of solar power obtainable in Nigeria per square meter is 940 w/m²/day depending on the geographical location of the area because of the cloudy nature and the forestation of the considered location. Sunlight is a renewable energy source that has been used in many traditional technologies for centuries. It has a widespread of uses especially where other sources of energy supplies are absent, such as in remote locations and rural areas. The primary forms of solar energy are heat and light. Secondary forms and effect include photosynthesis, wind, the hydrologic cycle, fossil fuels and electricity. Some of the technologies developed by Agricultural Engineers using solar energy are notably the dryers and solar cookers.

Dryers of various capacities for drying different agricultural commodities have been developed and tested in many higher Institution and research centres. In the  IAR workshop of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria alone, fifteen natural, force convection  and hybrid dryers for multi-crops were designed and fabricated in recent times. The natural convection dryers use solar energy alone for the drying,  the force convection  dryers use blowers to pass the heated air over the drying materials while the hybrid uses a combination of solar collector, fossil fuel exchanger and blower for the drying of the commodities. The capacity of the fabricated dryers range from small-scale with drying chamber capacity of 25 – 50 kg of crops to medium scale with capacity up to 250 kg of crops. One of the most efficient and locally fabricated dryers is the IAR forced convection solar energy dryer which was constructed using aluminium sheet and other locally available materials. It is a Low cost & low energy demanding dryer for vegetable crops and was found to be saving 115% drying time when compared with traditional sun drying. Another important feat is the development of forced convection solar dryer for drying of meat (kilishi). This dryer can dry a batch of 20 kg meat in six hours in a highly hygienic condition. The dryer was developed by Bello N. Babalola, a 2014 ABU Agricultural Engineering graduate.

Solar cooker is a device which uses the energy of direct sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize food or drink. Many solar cookers presently in use are relatively inexpensive, low-tech devices, although some are as powerful or as expensive as traditional stoves, and advanced, large-scale solar cookers can cook for hundreds of people. Solar cooking is a form of  outdoor cooking and is often used in situations where minimal fuel consumption is important, or the danger of accidental fires is high, and the health and environmental consequences of alternatives are severe. The concept of solar cooking started more than 100 years ago and was used by the French foreign legion in the 1870s. All solar cookers works on the same principles of concentrating the direct solar rays to raise food or counter to cooking temperature. In Nigeria, many Agricultural Engineers and other scientists developed solar cookers as alternative cooking devices for rural dwellers. Among the recent ones are the cookers developed by Engr Ajewole Joachim, a graduate of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, Engrs Ocheche Edwin and Engr Mulikat Shuaibu Abubakar, both are graduates of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.

Generally, Solar cookers are classified into two categories. One is the box type and the parabolic reflector focusing type. The cooking ability of the box type, seems to be satisfactory in comparison to cost involved. Parabolic reflector focusing type cooker needs frequent adjustment to track the apparent motion of the sun, for these reasons this type of parabolic reflector solar cooker is not much popular. The technology for a solar box cooker is simple, it is a box made from a heat retaining material (plywood, cardboard, etc). The top of the box consist of one to two layers of clear glass or plastic and on the bottom is a black collector plate made ideally of metal upon which a cooking pot (black pot) rests. The solar  cooker developed by the ABU graduates is a simple box with a single reflector mirror, to direct the sunrays through a double glass surface, into an enclosed box with a black pot enclosed. During testing, it was able to boil water at 115^OC, cook rice within a period of 75 minutes to 2 hours depending on the cooking time in the day. Using the solar energy for cooking has many advantages especially in a developing country like Nigeria; it preserves food nutrient because of moderate cooking temperature, reduces risk of fire accident and injuries in search for fire wood and other local fuel, it is economical and prevents desertification, since the wood would be left to check desert encroachment. However, its major disadvantage is that it cannot be used when there is no sunlight.

Farm Operations Machinery

No doubt, the use of farm machinery to execute farm operation increases amount of land to be cultivated, resulting in increased food production. Thus, use of farm machinery ensure a continuous cropping system as it is unlikely that large areas of cultivated land will be abandoned. Right from planting to harvest and post harvest operations; different capacities of the farm machinery were developed by Agricultural Engineers in the last three decades for adoption by small scale farmers. These categories of farmers have always been the major focus of the Engineers considering the level of agricultural development nationally.  In 2014 and 2015, engineering graduates of ABU, Zaria developed an animal drawn single and double row planters. The single row planter has a capacity of 0.114 ha per hour with field efficiency of 66%, which was modified to double row planter with a capacity of 0.298 ha per hour and efficiency of 91%. Within the same period, a single row planter - cum- fertiliser applicator was developed by the same organisation. The machine can successfully plant seeds at rate of 0.1064 hectare per hour as well as apply fertiliser at the rate of 115 kg per hectare.

Weeding operation is one of the most tedious farm operation that makes farming unattractive to many people especially the youths because of drudgery. Agricultural Engineers have made tremendous effort in developing animal drawn mechanical weeders. Two examples are suffice; IAR  Animal Drawn Straddle Row Weeder and EMCOT Rotary Weeder with  capacities of weeding  a quarter of hectare per an hour each. Obviously, the target of this weeding technology is small and medium scales farms who constitute more than 80% of the farming population.  (to be continued) 

Newspaper version of the article