About Agricultural Engineering

Agricultural Engineering is the discipline that deals withthe design, production, utilization and management of technical means and processes for the production, storage, treatment and processing ofagricultural goods. As a profession, Agricultural Engineering seeks to apply the principles of Engineering and Technology to the solution of various problems in the biological world, both plant and animal, to design or develop efficient and environmentally sensitive methods for managing and producing food, fiber, timber,and renewable energy for the people of the world. In recent times, the profession has taken names such as Bio-Resource Engineering, Agricultural and Biological Engineering; and Agriculturaland Environmental Engineering, to mention but a few.
It has been redefined as the discipline of engineering that applies engineering principles and fundamental concepts of biology to agricultural and biological systems and tools, ranging in scale from molecular to ecosystem level, for safe, efficient and environmentally sensitive production, processing and management of agricultural, biological, food and natural resources systems. It combines the disciplines of Animal Biology, Plant Biology, and Mechanical, Civil, Electrical and Chemical Engineering principles. It involves broader scope engineering in the entire world than any other engineering discipline. In this regard, Agricultural Engineering is an especially challenging and varied profession in which engineering solutions are required for the efficient production of food, feed, fur,fuel and fiber under a whole range of environmental conditions and production practices. The varied areas of practice include;
*.Processing and utilization of agricultural products as food and fodder, as well as alternative energy sources (solar and biomass) or bio-renewable products.
*.The technology of treatment, upgrading and recycling of bio-materials to serve as soil improving or fertilizing materials
*.Responsibility for planning, implementation and maintenance of rural infrastructure (roads, water supply, transport, electricity, cottage industries, etc.) for enhancement of rural living.
*.Ensuring that the world has the necessities of life including safe and plentiful food, clean water, renewable fuel and energy, safe working conditions and a healthy environment.
*.Soil and water conservation technology (erosion control, tillage, irrigation, drainage structures), landscape maintenance, biological waste management and maintenance of public services like clearing of ditches and cutting of hedges.
*.Automated computer-aided control systems and robotics in field and post-harvest operations, food processing and in animal production, as well as bio-resource engineering, which has machines and nanobots on the molecular level to help the environment.
*.The design of agricultural machinery, equipment, and agricultural structures, processes and systems.
*.Care and processing of poultry and dairy and fish management as well as forestry products.
The traditional fields of Agricultural Engineering are generally those of Power and Machinery (tractors, field implements) Structures (livestock housing, crop storage and processing facilities) and Soil and Water (irrigation, erosion control, drainage). As stated earlier, in recent times, Agricultural Engineers have professionally become involved in many other areas in which the principles of engineering are applied tobio-systems such as food engineering (processing and packaging), Environmental Engineering, Biological Waste Management and Pollution Control and Energy Sources (solar and biomass).
Other technical divisions of agricultural engineering include: Aquacultural Engineering, Biological Engineering, Ergonomics, Safety and Health, Food Engineering, Forest Engineering, Information and Electrical Technologies, Environmental Engineering, and other emerging areas which all intersect and overlap.
The present level of Nigeria’s agricultural development requires now, more than ever before, the application and control of engineering principles (including power in several forms), the use of growing varieties of materials, and the improvement in technical processing to raise productivity and efficiency and to reduce its requirements of human labour. The Agricultural Engineer must therefore be trained to play a prominent role in the application of the physical principles of Engineering to Nigerian Agriculture.
Admission Requirements for Agric engineering Futo.

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UNTIL NIGERIA INVEST MORE IN EDUCATION, SHE WILL STILLBE FACED WITH MANY CHALLENGES.

In a nation where more than half of its population are not educated, what would you expect? We won't blame this on our colonial master. Should we? Education is not all about seeing the four walls of an academic institutions but it entails mastering and the development of the mind and structuring the individuals not just to be doctors, engineers, lawyers,teachers,but to acquire the rudiments necessary for an adaptable future. ..,passing through the school system and the school system passing through one. The negligence melted on the Nigerian educational sector have made a U-turn on our country. This decay have long started and can only be corrected by a long term objective stagemanaged by those grinded in the subject matter.
Though our dear country is rich in policies formulation, she have not been able to manage a pass mark in implementing them. The Nigerian policy on educationalis a laughable one. It is a mixture of both the British and American with emphasise not laid on domestic factors. This have made it possible for the epileptic structure notto be able to accommodate arising issues in our education. For instance, the language aspect of the Nigerian policy as it concerns educational is a flaw that can only be corrected on the drawing board. While it stated that the child should be taught (between primary 1and 3) with the mother tongue, the police failed to specify what mother tongue will be in environments wherethere are more than ten ethnic languages eg, university environments. it also failed to inculcate the different languages as a course studyable in schools.
I believe that the ever decaying nature of the Nigerian education is part of what made late professor Chinua Achebe to write his popular novel, "Things Fall Apart". The education standard has in turn fallen and now all we can now boast of is "paper certificates".
I can still remember how my aunty who saw only primary school used to teach me. she could make a correct sentence and tell me which is noun, adjective or verb. Now, the reverse is the case as university graduates cannot write the English alphabets correctly. We are all victims of this circumstances.
The government will no doubt take the lion share of the blames. I mean our politicians who send their children abroad and turn around to cripple our education. None payment of teachers salaries and failures to provide basic apparatus for learning are key factors to this imbroglio. The paper policy on our education as a philosophy, stipulated that no nation can grow more than the qualities of its teachers and yet, teachers are not given a place of pride in the polity. WHAT AN IRONY? So much of a time in the past, public schools have been shut down and just recently, polytechnics gates were shut behind students for three months and who knows if the universities's won't be so. In the history of Nigeria, no administration, state or federal have borrowed money to finance education but many have done so to finance White elephant projects. I pity Nigeria.
The Nigerian system which is naver a fertile ground for improvement and excellence, have made the impoverished population to go extra miles to have a "certificate". As an option, parents now pay huge amount of money for their wards to be aided in examinations. This have eroded pupils and students' remain zeal to read, after all,they will be assisted.
I cannot stop crying that Nigeria have left the search for a black goat till night fall.
Ostensibly to revamp education in Delta state, our animal doctor of a governor handed over some schools to their original owners call missionaries. what Good will this bring since the average families cannot afford the fee. Private schools as the remaining opium, students and pupils are left under the tutelage of frustrated young school leaver who May not be proud of the job owned to the stipends as salaries. If you have ever been to Marry Mount College Agbor before now, a re visit will explain more. Which way Nigeria?
...to be continued

Written by Jegbefume Onyekacha juliet

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Students beg President Jonathan to wade into ASUU strike

Students of the Ebonyi State University (EBSU) on Friday begged President Gooodluck Jonathan to wade into the lingering ASUU and Federal Government crisis.
The students said that they looked up to Mr President to personally intervene in the face-off.
Mr Louis Onwe, a 300-level biochemistry student said: ‘’His intervention into the ongoing crisis will lead to timely resolution of the impasse and resumption of academic work.’’
He said that since the president enjoyed enormous goodwill with the union, it would listen to him if he intervened personally in the face-off.
“ASUU demands are quite germane as it will boost research and development of infrastructures in the universities,’’ Onwe said.
Mr Kelechukwu Anyigor, also a 300-level student of biochemistry, said they were optimistic that Jonathan’s intervention was needed to quickly resolve the strike.
“Our president enjoys tremendous goodwill because of his human rights records, and his attempt to reposition the country’s economy.
“It is our candid belief that if he personally intervenes in the matter, ASUU will listen to him in the interest of the students and the nation at large,’’ Anyigor said.
Mr Michael Otuu of the Department of Business Administration, called on the president to rise above politics and wade into the crisis in the interest of Nigerian students and university education.
According to him, the indefinite strike already in its fifth week is having a negative toll on the academic pursuit of university students in the country.
Otuu called on well meaning Nigerians to prevail on the federal government to accede to the demands of ASUU in the interest of industrial harmony in the system.
The National President of ASUU, Dr Isa Fagge, declared a nationwide indefinite strike on July 1 to protest the failure of the government to honour the 2009 agreements it reached with ASUU. (NAN)

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FUTO to Produce Electric Car

The Federal University of Technology, Owerri has concluded plans to produce an electric car which would be known as “AFRICAR”.

This was made known by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. C. C. Asiabaka during an interaction with a delegation from the Department of Automobile Engineering, Technical University, Munich, Germany who were in the University on a collaboration visit to the University. He further disclosed that the collaboration with Technical University, Munich, Germany would enhance the quality of the electric car to be produced by the University as four (4) FUTO Ph.D students will be working with selected postgraduate students from the Technical University, Munich, Germany on the project. He disclosed that a major fallout of the project would be the development of a functional Department of Automobile Engineering by FUTO. He also noted that the project would be a marriage between research and the Industry.

In his presentation, the Team leader of the delegation from Technical University, Munich, Germany stated that the “Africar” project was a specially designed concept for developing an electronic vehicle in meeting about 95% mobility needs of the people of the sub-Saharan Africa. He further stated that similar projects have been completed in Europe and Asia and the “Africar” would be affordable, environmentally-friendly with electronic architecture and produced with local content materials. He also added that the “Africar” project has been designed to meet the peculiar needs of Nigerians.

The Project Co-ordinator of the “Africar” project, Engr Prof O. M. I. Nwafor stated that the realisation of the “Africar” project would mark a major breakthrough in technological advancement in the country with FUTO in the driving seat. He added that the tripartite collaboration between FUTO, Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo and the Technical University, Munich, Germany would strengthen the final phases in the production of the “Africar”.

In his contribution at the occasion, the Rector of Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo, Rev Fr. Dr Wence Madu disclosed that the project would revolutionise the automobile industry in the country.

The delegation later inspected the Automoblie Workshop and other relevant facilities in the University

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Vice-Chancellor Lays Foundation for New SMAT Complex

The quest to tackle the perennial accommodation challenges in the University received a major boost with the official foundation laying ceremony of the School of Management Technology, (SMAT) building Complex held on Tuesday, July 30, 2013. In his remarks at the ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. C. C.Asiabaka noted that the actualisation of the project was in response to the clarioncall to stakeholders to assist in the infrastructural development of the University. He paid glowing tributes to the Board and Management of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and other stakeholders for their support in ensuring the realisation of the project. He added that the new complex would drastically reduce the accommodation challenges of the University.
The Director, Physical Planning and Development Unit, Engr Nnanna Okoro commended the Vice-Chancellor for his tenacity in ensuring the realisation of the project. He disclosed that the three (3) floor building complex which will contain two Departmental buildings, a large Auditorium and standard canteen would be completed in 104 weeks.
In his vote of thanks, the Dean, SMAT, Prof S. M. Nzotta,represented by Prof. G. F. Okorafor expressed immense appreciation to the Vice-Chancellor and Management for responding to the accommodation challenges of the School. He added that the complex would significantly enhance teaching and research in the School which were part of the goals of the administration’s mantra the “Quest for Excellence”
The Vice-Chancellor was accompanied to the ceremony by Principal Officers and other key officers of the University.

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