Hand book on use and maintenance of small scale agricultural machines

Small-scale farmers are estimated to account for the cultivation of about 90% of the total cultivated land area in Nigeria, producing about 90% of the total agricultural output (CTA, 1997). This category of farmers still depends on manual labour to carry out their various farming operations. However, with labour demand at critical crop production stages, high labour cost and food demand for the teaming population of over 170 million with an annual growth rate of 2.5%, the introduction of agricultural labour saving devices to Nigeria agriculture has become indispensable. Though successive administrations in Nigeria have made concerted efforts aimed at achieving self sufficiency in food production, these efforts have failed to achieve their intended goals. There are many factors responsible for this, a major one being the lack of an integrated and appropriate labour saving agricultural tools and machines. Therefore, the need to develop and introduce more labour saving devices on Nigeria farms has never been more critical than now. Knowing fully well that increased land productivity (greater output per unit of land) generally depends on the application of higher technology and a higher level of knowledge and management ability, it is necessary to appreciate those changes in mechanization level and farm management abilities that can have a multiplier effect on output per unit of land. It is in view of the above that ICRISAT Nigeria is poise with the massive promotion of standardized small and medium scale agricultural machinery and equipment as well as promotes the production of locally designed prototypes in order to help increase the productivity of the poor agrarian community of the country..