Kingsley Ankukumah, a Ghanaian Agricultural Engineer has developed a manual pruner which will make pruning easy for Ghanaian cocoa farmers and improve yield.
Mr. Ankukumah’s invention which has a harvester attached was designed to “end the drudgery farmers endure in applying good agricultural practices (GAPs) like pruning, due to the lack of appropriate tools.”
The innovator who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of Agrifix Express maintained “with this product, the farmer’s challenge of using heavy bamboo poles affixed with sickle or machete is over because the tool is made of lightweight, quality and durable material.”
Speaking on how the device would be of benefit to cocoa farmers, Engineer Mc Makafui Amedzi, an external consultant of Agrifix Express stated that “the pruner and sickle blades are made from durable stainless steel, thus hardly breaks, thereby serving the farmer longer and helps achieve more in a short time.”
Mr. Amedzi added that “The device has an easy to operate locking system that allows for quick blade replacement. Growing and harvesting cocoa in Ghana is a labour intensive venture. Several research findings have revealed that a vast majority of farmers rely on basic implements like machete in farm management and this situation is worrying for a country like Ghana with an aging farmer population.”
Mr. Ankukumah said “designing innovation solutions to the challenges that confront farmers is a strong motivation to the team of machine design engineers, agricultural engineers, and fabrication experts at Agrifix Express.”
“their goal is to make cocoa farming attractive to all in the context of farm tool. Cocoa production experts say a good pruning regime is beneficial in increasing crop yield and reduces the application of chemicals for pest and disease control. Research shows that well-pruned cocoa farms may not need fertilizer to be productive.”
Mr. Ankukumah, CEO of Agrifix Express
Recently, Ghana’s cocoa regulatory body, Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) introduced the motorized pruner and slasher. Despite procuring 100,000 pieces for Cocoa farmer cooperatives nationwide, a lot more ensures that every farm is adequately covered.
It is the hope of Mr. Ankukumah and his team that their pruner-cum-harvester would serve as a great complement to COCOBOD’s effort at upscaling the national cocoa farm pruning exercise.
Adding to comments made by the Chief executive, Mr. Joshua Oluwadare, a CAD engineer on the Agrifix team intimated “Helping our cocoa farmers to be able to undertake pruning and other beneficial modern farming practices in a tireless manner is our cardinal mission for developing this piece of equipment.”
Farmer Using Machete to Prune
Engineer Oluwadare added “We understand that when the farmer is successful, then Ghana is successful.”
He noted, “we are developing several other approtech tools to provide practical and affordable solutions to challenges to cocoa and food production.”
Mr. Ankukumah disclosed that his out fit “has partnered with the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) to train the youth in the fabrication of the tool for a living.”
Currently, Agrifix Express has in stock over a thousand Pieces of the manual pruner-cum-harvester with their locally assembled CNC laser cutting machines.
The pruner-cum-harvester is already in use in the Central, Ashanti, Eastern, Bono, and Ahafo Regions in Ghana.
Source: thecocoapost.com
