Mechanization for Small-holder Farmers in Uganda – An Innovative Approach by Busitema University

This paper presents experiences on endeavors being undertaken to advance value addition technologies for agricultural oriented engineering designs geared towards providing solutions to small holder farmers in Uganda. Mechanization involves the substitution of crude farm implements and practices with advanced tools and systems of nurturing plants and animals and improving the shelf life of such produce using modern processing techniques. All these are done to reduce human energy exerted in the agricultural process, ensure efficiency in agricultural operations, improve agricultural productivity and in the process improve the shelf life of the produce ensuring timely and regular supply of farm produce and most importantly improving the welfare of the people and enhancing economic growth. The process involves identifying farmers needs through University-community outreach activities, formulation of challenge/opportunity into an engineering design and testing the prototype within the community prior to final design and production. The selected technologies are incubated in the University's Technology Business Innovation and Incubation Centre (TBIIC) to achieve robustness and competitiveness. Developed technologies such as the bicycle powered irrigation pump system, portable ceramic water filter and treatment system, low cost motorized weeder and various grain post-harvesting machine tools have shown great success.