Design and construction of a back pack granular fertilizer applicator.

Abstract

Fertilizers are defined as chemicals, and minerals that supply one or more essential plant nutrients. Substantive use of fertilizer is a prerequisite for the success of efforts to improve agricultural productivity and hence increase agricultural output and farm income in Africa. Average fertilizer use in Africa is 10 kg/ha, equivalent to 10% of the world average, which is still low. Uganda has one of the highest soil-nutrient depletion rates in the world. with one of the lowest rates of annual fertilizer application - only 1.8 kg per hectare (FAO, 2011) Small scale sugar cane farmers in eastern Uganda are faced with the challenge of applying granular fertilizers in their sugar cane plantations by using rudimental methods which are tedious, time consuming, involve non-uniform fertilizer application and exposes the farmers to skin effects of directly getting in touch with the chemical fertilizers The designed back pack granular chemical fertilizer applicator was tested and the results indicated a high fertilizer application with an efficiency of 78.9%, with a machine capacity of 115.1kg/hr. And an application rate of 260kg/ha. The designed and constructed back pack granular fertilizer applicator is affordable, skin burns are minimized, an increased rate of fertilizer application, improves fertilizer application and easy to use.