A growing number of young Nigerians are becoming interested in farming, and to lessen the labour-intensive tasks on the farm, two or three farmers can pool their resources to purchase small-scale technologies.
The technologies listed below are just a few examples of small-scale technologies made locally and available at different research institutes and fabrication centres across the country.
- Two -Row Cassava Stem Planter with Fertiliser Applicator: It has a capacity of 0.9 hectare per hour for farmers or group of farmers who are small and medium scale farmers. With N3.5m, cassava farmers can own one. The National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM) also has a model that can be built to a farmer’s taste.
- Three-Row Multi-Seed Planter with Fertiliser Applicator: This locally fabricated technology enables the farmer to plant his crops in three rows at once. It can handle 0.6 hectare per hour or an average of one hectare in two hours. Consider the stress in manually planting seeds and the cost. A three-row seed planter for maize and soybeans and other grains could greatly help. The price as seen by this reporter in one of the agricultural shows recently is N4m.
- Steering & PTO Tractor: With the heavy cost of more advanced tractors, which smallholder farmers can hardly afford, Steering & PTO Tractor is a good alternative for farmers. The tricycle-like tractor with a 30-horse power engine which cost an average of N2.5m can help farmers take away manual labour in ploughing.
- Cassava processors can also consider the Motorised Cassava Peeler, particularly for those in starch, flour and garri production. The NCAM brand comes with a capacity of 0.7 tonnes per hour and costs about N750,000.
- At a recent agric show, NCAM presented a combined rice mill with a capacity of 0.3 tonnes per hour, costing N2.5m. The machine is a multipurpose-milling and destining one. This will be good for small mills in local and semi-urban areas.
- Another technology which could lessen the burden of processing palm oil manually for smallholder processors is the Integrated Oil Palm Fruit Digester-Screw Press. It comes in different capacities and is manufactured locally. The NCAM brand has a capacity of one tonne per batch and costs N3.5m.
- For women in the business of processing melon (egusi), the motorised melon seed Shelle with Separator is a technology you can consider. Some of the brands cost between N500,000 and N850,000 and can handle an average of 100kg per hour.
- One of the newest technologies that were locally introduced by NCAM a few years ago is the NCAM Yam Mound Making Implement which has the capacity to make 2,650 mounds (heaps) per day. The cost as seen in one of the agric shows recently was pegged at N2.5m.
- Hand-Guided Motorised Weeder can significantly help, particularly during the wet season, where herbicide efficacy can be affected by rainfall. It can handle an average of half a hectare per hour and costs between N200,000 and N300,000.
Lastly, for this edition, the Briquetting Machine for processing a number of biomass briquetting.
