NCAM: Nigeria must pay attention to local production of implements

Centre ready to domesticate homegrown agric techs Work on durability of your equipment, farmers tell centre Established with the mandate to develop and indigenise technologies for improved farming activities in the country, the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), Ilorin, has strived to domesticate homegrown technologies in response to the manufacturing and fabrication of farm […]

• Centre ready to domesticate homegrown agric techs

• Work on durability of your equipment, farmers tell centre

Established with the mandate to develop and indigenise technologies for improved farming activities in the country, the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), Ilorin, has strived to domesticate homegrown technologies in response to the manufacturing and fabrication of farm implements.

With equipment like the multipurpose thresher, which cost between N650,000 and N900,000, mechanical fryer for garri, cassava planter and harvester and ‘all the arrays of equipment for rice, cassava and garri production’, 4-row planter for large scale farming, bean seed deola and improved melon sheller with blower, among others, the NCAM has provided local and fabricated alternatives for Nigerian famers. But there is still more to be done.    

Apart from its headquarters in Kilometer 20, Ajase-Ipo Road, Kwara State, the NCAM has centres in Abuja, Akure, Umudike and Zaria, but limited by fund to complete its presence in all the six geopolitical zones across the country. That will hopefully come on stream next year, according to the management.

Experts and big players in the farming industry believe that manufacturing and proper domestication of its implement will go a long way to saving the country a huge foreign exchange. But there are still some unresolved puzzles to the full actualisation of its mandate.  

While the NCAM said it had taken the technology to the farmers and end users of its product, free of charge because of the complaints of lack of funds, some of them who spoke with Daily Trust on Sunday said some of the equipment were not durable and did not really meet the needs and specifications expected.

One of the operators of the garri processing factory in Ilorin told our correspondent that the garri fryer manufactured by the NCAM and distributed to them had since been abandoned because of its lack of durability and failure to add value to the frying process as they had expected.   

Dr Muideen Yomi Kasali, the executive director of the NCAM, while speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday about the progress so far, said the centre had fabricated arrays of equipment, which have been pushed to the farmers and showcased at many exhibitions with the recent coming at the National Food Day Exhibition in Abuja.

He said drudgery was one of the major constraints in agriculture, which has led to mass exodus of people from farming.

But how has the NCAM fabricated equipment been helpful to farmers and other end users?

The NCAM boss said, “We have fabricated many types of equipment in every core value chain. The problem is that the farmers are poor and many belong to the state. Although I can’t say our equipment are cheap, we try as much as possible to scale down to their level, but they don’t have the capacity. Most of what we use, like mild steel, prime movers and others, are imported. And if you factor all these into the production, it won’t be cheap. That is the problem.

“We have a very vital equipment —planter, that is just N80,000—but farmers can’t afford it. So we now built about 11 processing shells in Kwara alone, such as a place like Ganmo, which is locked now due to the scarcity of cassava. 

“Also, some time ago, women in agriculture that are into garri processing at Sabo Oke in Ilorin came to us to buy a grater, which costs N220,000. The grater is very expensive because of the stainless steel, which is imported. A sheet of stainless steel of 10mm now costs N220,000, and by the time you cut it, it would not be sufficient for more than two equipment. The women complained that they could not afford it. I asked how much they had  and they said they didn’t have anything. They wanted freebies. Because of that we decided to make processing shells for them. We have about six rice processing shells in the Pategi area of Kwara north, free of charge from the federal budget.”

State governments not helpful 

Kasali, however, believes that if the federal government can subsidise these equipment, the state should follow suit.

“That is the problem we have in Nigeria. If we want to move the country forward in mechanisation, we need to make sure that we change the way we are doing things to be able to feed ourselves. With subsistence farming, there is no way we can achieve that. And even if we increase hectarage, with same method we will not get anything. 

“There are machines in advanced countries that can produce more than double yields and farm three or four times in a year. Those are the challenges we still have to solve,” he said.

He said the NCAM initially held Field Day in its campus at Kilometer 20, Ajase-Ipo road, Idofian, Kwara State but found out that many farmers did not come because they didn’t have money to transport themselves.

“So we decided to be going to the states and do Field Day there. We have done it in about six states now. Governors of those states will come to launch the programme, and we interact with them on necessary things. But the states are not encouraging the farmers. 

Saving foreign exchange 

Kasali said if most of the NCMA equipment were adopted, it would impact the economy a lot. He said, “The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, under partnership with China, has taken a loan in form of equipment (about 10,000 tractors). 

“A tractor now costs N15 million. Multiply it by 10,000 and that will be N150 billion. And you can imagine its magnitude in different states in the country. You can see the negative impact such huge amount of money will have on different states. 

“You are only employing people in the foreign country, while what we will get is debit because all these things are imported and it is going to affect our economy. 

“The only advice is that we should encourage our own technology, even if it may not aesthetically compete with imported ones. But durability and climate compatibility will affect the foreign ones since they are being brought from a separate climate. You will find out that most of the machines are having problems, and some of them don’t even have spare parts. We have lots of scrap of tractors in Nigeria now, which we are doing a survey to get the quantum on how many have been imported but now useless.

Can farmers access the equipment?

The problem has been affordability, and that is why I said subsidy is the only way out. I don’t see the reason why states can’t buy in bulk from us and distribute it on subsidised price to the farmers and people. The impact will come back to the state indirectly.

Challenges and triumphs 

While the NCAM boss appreciated the effort of the government, there is the need for more funding if the centre must cover more grounds. 

“Definitely, the government of the day has tried its best for us through the budgetary allocation, and we have been able to improve on our workshop. But for research purposes, the demand is elastic, and so, we still need more funding to train more youth and help improve the productivity of the country’s agriculture.

For triumphs, Dr Kasali told Daily Trust on Sunday that the centre recently developed a yam heap moulding equipment. “Drudgery in yam farming is about 60 per cent, and what constitutes the figure is heaping. For you to mould heap for yam, you must be well fed. A strong person can only do about 300 heaps per day, but the machine will do 2,050 per day, which shows the efficiency of the machine and what it can bring to the economy. 

“Cassava planter can plant 5 hectares in a day, but no farmer can ever plant that much in a day, which is even energy-sapping. We have produced different equipment that can change the face of agriculture in the country,” he said.