Effect of Variety, Soil Moisture Content and Cutting Depth on Performance of a Single Row Animal Drawn Groundnut Digger

The challenge of providing a more efficient and cost-effective ways of harvesting groundnut amongst the small holder farmers is imperative in northern Nigeria as a result of intensity of labor requirement in the task. It is reported that up to 40 % of the total labor required to grow groundnut is expanded on harvesting operation and at peak harvest periods, labor shortages often occur leading to higher costs of production and subsequent years of reduction in yield due to soil nutrient loss owing to the uprooting method of manure harvesting. In order to assuage some of these challenges, a field test was conducted to evaluate operation performance of a single row animal drawn groundnut harvester developed in the department of Agricultural engineering Bayero University Kano. The effects of the control parameters of; variety of the groundnut seed planted, soil moisture content and cutting depth of the digger were studied on the performance parameters of the harvester as; digging efficiency, percentages of exposed pods loss, unexposed pods loss, undug pods loss and total of pods loss. The results obtained revealed a highly significant difference among the varieties with respect to unexposed pod loss (%), while moisture content was found to significantly affect exposed pods loss (%), total pos loss and digging efficiency. Varying the cutting depth significantly affected exposed pods (%), un-exposed pods (%), total pod loss and digging efficiency. Interaction between SAMNUT 23, moisture content of 12.4%db and cutting depth of 15 cm had digging efficiency of 97.22%, while the interactions between SAMNUT 26, moisture content of 12.4%db and cutting depth of 15 cm had digging efficiency of 95.14%. The study revealed that higher digging efficiency is obtainable with higher soil moisture content and cutting depth, irrespective of the variety under cultivation, while correlation analysis revealed that digging efficiency and total percentage of pod loss are inversely related, signifying that at lower digging efficiency there would be higher pod loss and vice versa

Determination of repair and maintenance cost for MF375 tractor: a case study in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

The agricultural tractor is at the center point of agricultural mechanization. Tractor costs have great influence on farm business profit. Knowledge of tractor costs for farm operations has a prime importance in making management plans and decisions especially in comparing different tractor types and models thereby assisting in the selection of a more appropriate farm tractor. This study reports the repair and maintenance cost for MF375 tractors with a view to providing such decision making aids as machine’s replacement and overall farm budgeting for machinery managers. Information on 75 MF375 tractors was obtained through a structured questionnaire. Data collected was sought on tractor characteristics and economic costs such as use of tractor each year, fuel consumption cost, lubrication oil cost, oil and fuel filters replacement cost and workmanship cost. Result showed that the cost of tractor spare parts replacement had the highest percentage share (54.2%) from the total percentage cost followed by cost of fuel (20.4%), workmanship cost (13.0%), and then cost of lubrication oil (10.3%) while cost of oil and fuel filter replacement had the least (2.1%) percentage share