The Role of Agricultural Engineering in National Development

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//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.jsINTRODUCTION

The words “agricultural engineering” as used around the world have vastly different meanings.

The term “agricultural engineer” means a person trained in engineering who applies engineering knowledge to agriculture and food as defined broadly to include biological processes and environmental aspects.

Rural areas, especially in developing countries, are facing with numerous social, economical, cultural and environmental problems.

In the most cases there is a growing concern because only very few farmers or inhabitants are able to follow contemporary, sustainable and environment-friendly methods in farming systems. The consequences of this are numerous, such as: poverty, significant migration to urban areas and unplanned suburban settlements. This has a significant impact on the national economy, demography, and environment. The Association of Agricultural Engineering in South Eastern Europe (AESEE), recently have dealt with these significant problems of the rural communities of their region and herewith emphasized the role of agricultural engineers in overcoming the problems and providing applicable solutions for a sustainable national economic development.

For a sustainable rural development in these countries, natural resources, such as land, water, plant and animal genetic resources, should be properly managed and conserved, human needs for present and future generations should be satisfied, ensured, technological and institutional change should be oriented accordingly. It is also important to mention that such sustainability should be environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable.

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The problems of rural areas in the region of Southeastern Europe and also worldwide are recognized. The most significant problems in the region are; poverty, migration to the cities, lack of appropriate infrastructure, size and fragmentation of farms.

The society and agricultural engineering profession should be aware of these problems of welfare of rural area inhabitants and provide solutions in order to achieve comparable living conditions with those in cities.

Engineering is a critical component for helping to meet the challenges facing increased crop production. In the early years of the Green Revolution, engineering made many technical contributions to reduce drudgery and help increase labour productivity. The opportunity is for contributing to an integrated system from field preparation all the way through the chain to end users.

Agricultural Engineers have, for some years, been discussing the present and future position of their profession. Actions like changing the name of the higher education institutes and title of the degrees to those more attractive and publicly well-known and acknowledged terminology or converting the agricultural engineering to and/or merging more with biological systems engineering were taken.

However, besides these public awareness efforts, significant focus should also be given to how to realize their roles in sustainable rural development as engineers of agriculture.

Agricultural engineers should therefore:

·        Ensure an adequate and safe food supply for an expanding world population,

·        Manage and protect the world’s vital water, soil, air and energy resources,

·        Help people through contribution to food production, food quality and safety, food storage, food processing, transport, packaging and marketing,

·        Help reduce the rural poverty and improve farmers’ welfare,

·        Help poor farmers raise their incomes by “face to face” contacts,

·        Avoid environmental degradation, conserve natural resources and control pollution,

·         Reduce drudgery of work carried out in rural life, ensure labour productivity whilst enabling more timely operations for a better production

It is important to note that young generations in both developed and developing countries prefer living in urban areas and leaving parents on their own at rural activities. This limits the sustainability of rural development.

As United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panels on Climate Change (IPCC) warn about the impacts of global warming and climate change, such as scarcity of food and water supplies, draughts, floods, migrations, increasing frequency of natural disasters, safety of food and water resources etc. In light of these climate change considerations, promotion of sustainable forms of agriculture; research on, and promotion, development and increased use of, new and renewable forms of energy, and of advanced and innovative environmentally sound technologies are to be implemented. All these and many other measures are directly related with the profession of agricultural engineering.

It is also foreseen that climate change will bring serious risks of draught and flood conditions in Southern and Eastern parts of Europe. It is, therefore crucial to pay particular attention to conservation and management of soil and water resources, adaptation and breeding of draught-resistant crop and livestock varieties and create awareness of rural communities through intensive training and extension services in the region. Agricultural engineers will certainly play a critical role in fight with these impacts of climate change.

For a sustainable rural development, farmers need to secure their income through adequate prices and also secure market conditions. Integration of farming activities with agro-industry, in other words a complete chain of food production from farm to consumers brings about an important role for agricultural engineers.

The overall objectives of Agricultural Engineering is to provide a conducive working environment for the farmer and assure him that there is dignity in farming, improve his economic situation and make food available in adequate quantity and quality at the right time of need and at a reasonable cost to consumers. These objectives are pursued through one or more of the following:

     i.        Reduction in farm hazards: The causes of these hazards are identified and solutions given. This ensures that the farmers labour is not in vain.

  ii.        Reduction of drudgery in agricultural operations: Agricultural engineering intervention is to develop machines and equipment that can be used in performing agricultural operations to reduce stress on farmers.

  iii.        Ensuring the availability of agricultural products all year-round: To meet all year-round demand of seasonal crops, they have to be processed and stored. Structures for long – term storage have to be built.

  iv.        Enhancement of the quality of life for the farmer. Agricultural engineering provides conveniences on the farm, such conveniences include farm houses, good farm roads etc.

THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING IN NATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

    i.          Food Security: Food security has recently become an important concept in sub-Saharan Africa. For Nigeria, the idea of food security revolves around ensuring that there is readily available food in the right quantity and quality and at an affordable price.

Food security can only be achieved if the food is produced in abundant quantity and in fact at commercial scale. Even when food is abundantly produced, if it is not taken care of, most of it will be lost to deterioration.

The Federal Government and some States in Nigeria have recognized the need to ensure food security and so they established a number of institutions to ensure food security. These include the Federal Strategic Food Reserve under the Federal Ministry pf Agriculture and other parastatals in the Ministry. In all these areas, Agricultural Engineering principles are practiced to ensure that there is adequate supply of food all year round.

  ii.          Reduction of Drudgery in Agricultural Work: The traditional farming method and system in Nigeria is characterised by the use of primitive tools and technology. These include the hoe, machete, and axe. A visit to any rural farming community will reveal how tedious it is to work with hand tools. For toiling under the sun for hours, most farmers can only cover a few fraction of a hectare. The drudgery involved in Nigerian traditional agricultural system can be seen on the faces and body of farmers.

With the introduction of machines, tedious operations hitherto handled by man are mechanised. Operating machines is less tedious than manual operations. The reduction in drudgery that comes with the introduction of machine makes agricultural work to be more attractive to the younger generation. This has a number of implications including a reduction in rural-urban migration, and improved dignity of the agricultural worker.

iii.          Rural Infrastructural Development: Most large-scale agricultural development programmes involve the development of basic rural infrastructure. These infrastructures include water, roads, electricity, schools, markets, energy supply systems, maintenance systems, processing systems and waste management and control systems. When these infrastructures are provided for the farm, the rural population benefits.

Thus, agricultural engineering has been referred to as a catalyst for rural infrastructural development. This is because with the development of the infrastructure listed above, the standard of living of rural dwellers is improved as they have access to basic necessities of life.

 iv.          Natural Resources Conservation: The natural resources on which the practice of agriculture is based are soil, water and air. One of the important roles of agricultural engineering is to ensure an optimum management of these resources. This will ensure that these resources are conserved. If soil and water resources are used without conservation, then one day, the resources will deplete to a point where they can no longer support plant and animal life.

Soil and Water Engineering option in Agricultural Engineering ensures that soil and water are conserved and reclaimed where necessary. Agricultural Engineering practices such as conservation tillage, terracing, erosion control, etc, are used for soil and water conservation. These are practised by Agricultural Engineers in many institutions in Nigeria including the River Basin Development Authorities and Agricultural Development Projects.

   v.          Environmental Management: A major area of Agricultural Engineering deals with environmental management. The control and hence management of the environment is achieved in different area. First, is the control of the environment (moisture, temperature, humidity, etc) of the environment of animals and crops. Agricultural Engineering provides required environmental conditions for the growth of animals and crops.After harvest, technologies are provided for managing the environments under storage. The second aspect of environmental control and management involves solid and liquid waste disposal. Agriculture produces waste in different forms – animal dung, crop residue, damaged food etc. the practice of engineering in agriculture provides the techniques for managing these wastes by recycling and converting some of them to useful products.

The third area of environmental management includes the control of the use of natural resources, forestry and horticulture where machines and systems are provided for environmental beautification.

 vi.          Quality of Life of Farmers: With the practice of agricultural engineering the quality of life of farmers is improved. Engineering in agriculture comes with it, mechanization of production. For mechanization to succeed, it has to be practiced on relatively large-scale farms. This results in farmers shifting from subsistent to commercial farming. With the scale of production increased, farmers can make more profits. More profits mean that they can have more disposable income, which they can invest in other areas of economic venture. In addition, they can now buy what they need to live decent lives and improve on their standard of living. This is the main goal of any national development strategy.

vii.          Sustainable Agriculture: A sustainable agricultural system is one that operates in such a way that the ability of future generations to operate is not compromised. Sustainable agriculture is therefore practiced in such a way the future generations can practice their own agriculture. In other words, the resources used for agriculture should be used in such a way that they are not depleted to a point where they cannot support agriculture for future generations. Agricultural Engineering provides technologies for conserving resources (Soil, Water, Energy and Funds) while producing enough food for the present generation. This is achieved through optimization techniques, which Agricultural engineering offers.

viii.          Industrial Development: When engineering is applied in agriculture, more food is produced and the variety and type of food increase. It means there will be more food in the economy than what is needed for consumption. This situation fuels the development of industries for processing the excess food into industrial raw materials either for local consumption or foe export. For example, it is now common knowledge that cassava is processed into industrial raw materials of different forms. With industries springing up, more employment opportunities are created and government revenue improves through more tax revenue. Thus, this can lead to a buoyant economy and citizens that are more gainfully employed.

ix.          Job creation: Agricultural engineering provides job opportunities to thousands of employee in Nigeria which has impacted positively on the economic development of Nigeria economy. The following are areas in agricultural engineering provides enormous career opportunities   

a.   Government Ministries: Nigeria operates three tiers of government, namely, federal, state, and local government. Each of these tiers of government operates ministries where agricultural engineers are employed. At the federal level these include Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources, Environment, Science and Technology. Each of the Ministries has departments under which many Agricultural Engineers are contributing their quota towards national development. At the state and local government levels, similar ministries exist and each of them has an engineering division.

b.   Government Parastatals: There are many government agencies, which are supervised by some ministries or are directly supervised by the Chief Executives of the states or at the federal level by the Presidency. Some of these have been phased out but many of them are still operational and since their services are agricultural based, they employ agricultural engineers. These include Tractor and Equipment Hiring companies, Environmental Protection Agencies in the state and federal level, National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization, River Basin Development Authorities, Erosion and Flood Control Programmes, etc.

c.   Private Companies and Industries: In the private sector, there are many opportunities for Agricultural Engineers in the service and production industry. In this sector, there are companies who provide agricultural services with engineering content. These include companies involved in the marketing and maintenance of agricultural machinery, agrochemicals and provision of agricultural services of different forms. Companies of this category include Tractor and Equipment (Division of UAC), Diezengoff, Leventies Technical, etc, and a host of other smaller indigenous companies. In the production sector, there are food processing companies and equipment manufacturing companies, flour mills, rice mills, tractor assembly plants, beverage manufacturers, confectionaries manufacturers etc.

d.   Educational Institution: Educational institutions in Nigeria include Colleges of Agriculture, Education, and Technology. There are also Polytechnics and Universities. Some of these Institutions have Department of Agricultural Engineering as well as Farm Operation Centre where Agricultural Engineers are employed.

e.   Research and Development Institution: There are many Research and Development (R&D) institutions in Nigeria. Under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, there are over 18 Agricultural research Institutes. Each of the institute has an Agricultural Engineering Department as well as a field demonstration farm and industrial development units where the Agricultural Engineer works.

f.    Self Employment: Self employment is an area that has not been fully explored or exploited by Agricultural Engineers. Opportunities exist in consultancy field in almost all government parastatals and the NGOs, as well as companies in the private sector. These include all areas of project feasibility, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Many food processing industries need agricultural raw materials, which can be supplied by Agricultural Engineers, especially those interested in post harvest systems. There are also wide ranges of opportunities in storage.

g.   Other areas: There are other areas of employment, which are usually not recognized by employers of labour. Usually, the tendency by Human Resources Personnel in companies is to exclude agricultural engineering discipline when they are looking for staff, even in areas where agricultural engineers by their training will do better than other engineers. For example, in a recent advertisement for jobs by Niger Delta Development Commission, Agricultural Engineering was not listed. Yet the Commission’s business is to develop an area where 95% of the inhabitants are farmers.

 SUMMARY

 Agricultural engineering is the application of engineering principles to any process associated with producing agriculturally based goods and management of our natural resources.  Agricultural engineering is more than just tractorisation. Agricultural Engineering is a build-up of other engineering disciplines. There are numerous objectives that Agricultural engineering aims to achieve and have contributed enormously for national economic development in the area of food production, employment opportunities, industrial development, sustainable agriculture, quality of life of farmers, environmental management, natural resources conservation, rural infrastructural development, reduction of drudgery in agricultural work, food security etc.

CONCLUSION

Agricultural Engineering is the bedrock of agricultural development and its neglect is a potential threat to the future survival of any country. Most of the countries who in recent times cried out for international aids are where the agricultural system has failed either due to drought, insect invasion or low agricultural input. Interestingly, most of these problems are what agricultural engineering as a profession could have arrested given the facilities and challenges. The profession has great potentials to solve most of the problems facing agriculture especially in developing countries.

 

REFERENCES

1.   K o s u t i c , S., G. F a b i j a n i c , M. Martinov, K.O. S i n d i r, N. Mihailov, V. R o s , S. S k a l j i c , 2007. Agricultural Engineering in South East Europe – Status and Prospects. 35. Symposium “Actual Tasks on Agricultural Engineering”, Opatija, Croatia, 2007

2.   UNDP, 2007. Making Globalization Work for All. UNDP Annual Report 2007.

3.   Mijinyawa, Y. (2005). Agricultural Engineering Education in Nigeria. Agricultural Engineering International: the CIGR Ejournal. Invited Overview Paper No. 10. Vol. VII, August 2005.

4.   Onwualu, A.P. (ed) (2001). Agricultural Engineering Practice in Nigeria: Nigerian Institute of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE) book of achievement. Publ. NIAE (A division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers).

5.   Brown, R.H. (ed). (1988). CRC handbook of engineering in agriculture. Boca Raton, FL.: CRC Press. ISBN 0-8493-3860-3.

6.   Field, H. L., Solie, J. B., & Roth, L. O. (2007). Introduction to agricultural engineering technology: a problem solving approach. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-36913-9.