How farmers can benefit from fabricated farm machinery
Right, a sprayer operated by using a bicycle wheel. PHOTO BY LOMINDA AFEDRARU
In Uganda like many other parts of Africa, farmers are gradually adopting use of mechanisation, especially those venturing into commercialised agriculture.
Scientists at Agricultural Engineering and Appropriate Technology Research Institute, Namalere (AEATRI) are making a number of agricultural tools, which they are encouraging farmers to adopt for better output.
Demand driven
The tools being promoted fit under different programmes at the institute; energy engineering, water harvesting and storage, soil science and primary processing, among others.
George Walozi, research officer in charge of energy engineering, explains that the technology developed at the Institute is demand- driven. Farmers demand for them after being sensitised on use of particular farm machinery.
Some machinery is brought from other countries as samples for case studies. An example is the Jab planter, which was brought from Asia. It is used for planting cereals like maize. But a number of them are fabricated with ideas from within the country while others are imported and brought to the Institute for adjustment.
The scientists encourage other players in the private sector to fabricate farm machinery and multiply some of the products.
However, the challenge is that many do not maintain the right standard as expected.
Some of the implements being made to be sold to farmers include rice threshers, cassava and sweet potato chippers, maize sheller, planter for soybean, maize seed, beans, groundnuts among others, and hay baler.
Apart from the above machinery, Samuel Onepi a mechanical engineer, AEATRI, explains the use of a cassava harvesting tool.
He says farmers damage the cassava tubers in the course of harvesting with hoes.
But his team is exploring ways of how best this crop can be harvested using this tool which has hooks.
Develop their own
A farmer will be required to hold the harvester from its pole, insert the sharp part into the soil and hook the entire tuber out from the soil. It will be given to farmers in cassava growing areas free of charge and if it works well then farmers will pay for it.
A senior technician, James Mzee, explains further about a number of the machines being worked. These include the groundnut stepper, which farmers can use for removing the pod.
Others are oil threshers used for processing oil from groundnut, simsim and sunflower among others.
Spray pump operated using a bicycle wheel and can spray in the vertical and horizontal direction.
It was imported from Brazil but the AEATRI team intends to develop their own to be given out to farmers.
Another farm tool is the water pump, commonly known as treadle, which is operated manually, and the ram pump mainly used by farmers living in mountainous areas.
Ease work
Some of the water pumps are motorised and they are run using diesel, mainly demanded by large-scale farmers.
There is also the compacting machine to enable ease when weeding as well as compacting fish ponds, the ripper for harvesting rice, rice planter and weeder for farmers in lowlands, and walking tractor.
Treadle pump can be used by small-scale farmer for irrigation units and wind-powered water lift pump used in fish ponds.
The uptake of these farm machinery by farmers depends on individual farmers but a number of them are purchase different equipment especially those growing cereal crops.
For instance, some manual maize shellers are sold at Shs100,000 while the motorised one costs about Shs4m and it can thresh up to 25 tonnes of maize, about 15 bags, using one litre of diesel.
Mechanisation
Appropriate technology is innovation for persons involved in the agricultural value chain right from ploughing the farm all through to adding value addition to make the product ready for food.
Appropriate agricultural technology applies to farmers throughout the world.
Those engaged in farming in both developed and developing countries embrace mechanised agriculture, which gives them good output in terms of commercialisation.
Farmers practicing mechanized farming in countries such as US, UK, Asia, Brazil, India and South Africa among others are using agricultural machinery such as tractors, combined harvesters, weeders and planting tools among others as they conduct their day-to-day agricultural activities.
