AN ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF SMALL RICE THRESHERS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

An assessment of existing rice thresher designs and products available within Nigeria and neighbour-         ing countries was carried out. The impetus for the study is the concern that low and poor quality of         local rice in Nigeria may be due, in important measure, to lack of appropriate and affordable small        threshers. On this basis, a reconnaissance work in Five Local Government Areas in Ogun State,    Erin        – Ijesha in Osun State, Igbimo in Ekiti State; Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, Makurdi in Benue State as well        as   Kura  -  Kano   and   Tundun   Wada   areas   of   Kano   State   was   carried   out.   Based   on   the   farmers’        evaluation   and   assessment   of   existing   rice   threshers   available   in   Nigeria,   the   study   recommended        three prototype small threshers that are pedal and petrol engine driven. The pedal operated thresher        was recommended for those with farm hectarage of less than 2. For threshing freshly harvested rice at        very   high   moisture   content,   the  IITA/WARDA   small   plot   spike-tooth   thresher   which   has   a  threshing        capacity of about 100kg/h was found to be appropriate for the small – scale farmers provided some         little modifications in the area of capacity and mobility were carried out while the multi-crop thresher of        the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T) Ibadan with a capacity of about 250kg/h        was recommended for those with farm hectarage of more than 5ha.