World Journal of Engineering Research and Technology

I.O. Oni, M.O. Lasisi and P. O. Ajewole*

ABSTRACT

This paper evaluates the usage and maintenance of the tillage machinery in Ekiti State, Nigeria. An inventory of the basic tillage machinery in agricultural establishment of the State was carried out. The source of the tillage machinery and the types of maintenance carried out on them were also determined. Data collected were analyzed using Statistics Package for Social Science (SPSS 2014), including the use of bar chart for the data’s that could not be computed by SPSS. The highest number of tillage machinery existing in the state are tractor and plough representing 27% each in which 64% of the tractors were in good working condition,30% were bad and 6% were serviceable. The disc ploughs approximated 42% were found to be in good working condition while 28% that were serviceable were being abandoned and exposed to weather condition on the field alongside the 30% of the tillage machineries that were in bad working conditions. On the other hand, disc harrows were 45%, 20% and 35% in good, fair and bad working conditions respectively. Also, the result reveals that, 58% of the disc ridgers were functional while 42% were not functional due to loss of some vital components. The result also indicates that, only 30% of the establishment under study organize training for their operators and mechanics on quarterly basis followed by 35% and 15% on bi-annually and occasionally basis respectively while 20% never organized any training. However, 77.78%, 66.67%, 50%, 72.22 and 77.78% strongly agreed that economic, operator’s deficiency, technical knowledge, environmental and availability of spare parts respectively are factors contributed to tillage machinery deterioration and abandonment in the study area. Resultobtained showed that, only 10% updatedtheirs log books regularly though, all the organization do carry out maintenance on their tillage machineries but the study showed that, daily maintenance was taken for granted despite the fact that there are skilled workers employed to carry out maintenance on them, only 24.22% of the firm normally carry out their maintenance daily, ranging from cleaning to checking of oil level, water level in the radiator, air pressure of tyres, battery terminals and others. 43.56% carried out major maintenance like changing of engine oil quarterly and 20.22% did theirs monthly with respect to level of work done by the machine while 12% attended to maintenance when there is breakdown. Results of the analysis of the information showed that the major plight to the use of the tillage machineries in Ekiti State, Nigeria were inadequate machinery, lack of proper maintenance and lack of regular training for operators of the available ones.

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