DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF TILLING MACHINE FOR SMALL SCALE FARMING

Abstract

The paper covers the design and construction a soil cultivator for small scale farming. One of the very important assemblies is the drive assembly which is designed to make possible suitable tine design for soil cutting. An optimum tines attack angle of 20 degree is determined for the final design. It is shown that the final design is relatively insensitive to tines attack angles below 20 degrees and above 20 degrees. The lines tends to lock up in the soil at tines attack angles below 20 degrees while at tines attack angle 20 degrees the tines act like a bulldozer. Local sourcing of materials and indigenous technique were employed. The machine is powered by a 1.5kw petrol engine and is fabricated at a cost of thirty one thousand and ninety naira. (N31,090:00) which is presumed affordable for small scale farming.