The geeks, the farmers and the wonder machine

ImpactRays, a team of Nigerian scientists have been shortlisted for the $1million Hult Prize for Technology for an innovation that could change the face of irrigation farming in Nigeria. Our correspondents spent some time with one of them and the farmers whose lives they have changed. Since Muhammad Ruwa, 50, father of nine and husband […]

ImpactRays, a team of Nigerian scientists have been shortlisted for the $1million Hult Prize for Technology for an innovation that could change the face of irrigation farming in Nigeria. Our correspondents spent some time with one of them and the farmers whose lives they have changed.

Since Muhammad Ruwa, 50, father of nine and husband of two wives, was forced to abandon irrigation farming, he has been working part time as a night watchman to put food on his family’s table.

Not keen to give up farming, he has restricted himself to wet season farming and hoping that the rains will nurture his farm in his native Kimni village in Ganjuwa Local Government of Bauchi State. When the rains leave, his farm lays fallow, as does his dreams of being a great farmer.

“I don’t venture into dry season farming because I cannot afford it, considering how much I will spend on labour and fuel to power the water generator. That’s why I am a rainy season farmer only,” Ruwa said.

But a new installation at the Waya Dam in Bauchi State, an irrigation system by ImpactRays Enterprise seeks to water Ruwa and other farmer’s dreams.

The Waya Dam installation happens to be a pilot project by a team of Nigerian inventors. Comprised of Abdulazeez Uba Muhammad, Faisal Sani Bala and Badamasi Imam Ya’u, students of the International Islamic University Malaysia, the trio have been shortlisted for the $1 million Hult Prize for technological innovation for this innovation which they hope will change the lives of bottom feeder farmers like Ruwa.

The 2018 Hult Prize theme on ‘Harnessing the Power of Energy to Transform Ten Million Lives’, began from the campus level to regional level until it got to the global stage, while hundreds of participants/teams from many world class universities participated. It is this installation at Waya that has propelled ImpactRays to the final.

But beyond the prize, the technology has demonstrated significant impact on the lives of farmers and rural communities.

Faisal Sani Bala one of the prime movers of the innovation says their aim is to impact 5 million lives with this innovation in the next three years.

Bala, a graduate assistant lecturer at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, who is currently pursuing a Masters in Mechatronics Engineering in Malaysia, however stressed that the challenges they are having in the competition is finance, and that the other teams were being financed by their government while theirs was from their personal pockets which has not been easy.

Leading our correspondent through some of his farm projects also in Jos, the Plateau State capital, Bala said, the irrigation technology was not their only presentation for the competition, explaining that some members of ImpactRays are at the Ashridge castle in the United Kingdom competing with other teams with another of their innovations.

“I began farming from Plateau State, and  I as well as some of my team members have engaged in dry season farming as students. We have been faced with the challenge of manual flooding irrigation, high cost of fuel, high cost of labour involved in watering, fertilizer wash-off and water shortage. These problems motivated myself and Aliyu Dala Bukar to design, implement and patent a smart Solar-Powered Irrigation System to ease irrigation farming through cutting the cost of labour and eliminating the use of petrol,” Bala said.

“Our innovation makes it possible for farmers with the challenge of water shortage to have three cycles of irrigation, whilst eliminating the environmental impact of greenhouse gases released by petrol powered irrigation pumps. The technology also provides light to rural communities without electricity, and local farmers where the project was piloted have started enjoying its irrigation benefits as well as the household lighting benefit,” Bala said.

He explained that the Malaysian government almost took up sponsoring them in the competition but later withdrew owing to the thought that the beneficiaries of the technology would be Nigerians, not Malaysians.

But for famers like Ruwa, the visa problems and sponsorship that ImpactRays lack at the moment is a distant worry, if at all. Their concern was that the unprecedented invention has come facilitate their irrigation farming and to assist them all the way.

“Now that I am a beneficiary of this automated irrigation system, it’s amazing how I am able to farm during dry season without the need for fuel and labour, and the yield is tremendous,” he said.

“We don’t have electricity, but it gives me light at night from the bulb attached to the box. Life is now better because my children can study at night in the comfort of the light bulb, and my wife too can charge phones from the light box,” he said.

He thanked the innovators and prayed for more wisdom upon them, saying that such creativity that could make life easier for the people is always welcome.

Another farmer at the dam, Malam Bama, said the good thing about the system is the way it is programmed to only deliver water when the plants need it, as well as the exact amount of water to deliver.

Bama stressed that everything was still like a magic to him, saying that if not until the technology was put into practical use and function, he never believed the theoretical explanation of its operation by the team.

Meanwhile, a university student who has a passion for farming, Jamil Gimba, who came to the dam to have a firsthand view of the technology said the irrigation system developed ImpactRays, his passion for farming has tremendously increased.

“I see farming particularly the aspect of irrigation, as a stressful endeavor and laborious. But seeing this technology by ImpactRays, I became very enthusiastic about becoming a farmer; that’s if I can be empowered with this kind of technology,” he said.

If this team of Nigerian innovators win this lucrative prize, no doubt it will make a huge difference to their work and their lives. But for now, they have made impacts in the lives of farmers like Ruwa who still struggles to find words of gratitude for these scientists.