Farm mechanization leading to more effective energy-utilizations for cassava andyam cultivations in Rivers State, Nigeria

摘要

Surveys have been conducted, under the auspices of the Ministry of Agricultureand Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs), in the 23 local-government areasof the Rivers State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire, personal visits tofarms and interactions with information repositories were used. The quantitiesof energy consumed by tractors used in activities associated with the growing ofcassava and yam crops in those areas were compared with traditional operations,using just manual labour. Within the period of 1986–2004, the total energyutilizations in the production of these crops, in the 23 local government areas,were 2738.87 and 33.5 MJ for tractor-power and traditional-manual operations,respectively. The tractorization intensity (TI) dropped from 0.352 hp/ha in 1986to 0.345 hp/ha in 2004. This result was below the presently advocated 0.5 hp/hafor agricultural operations in order to increase crop production. This studyidentified the causes of this shortfall and recommended, at least for the short-term future, that farm industrialization of all sectors should be subsidize