GFAR blog

YAP Proposal #277: Designing and fabricating efficient processing machinery (Agbelesola Dolapo, Nigeria)

kovamic87

machinery

Background Information

My name is Agbelesola Dolapo, 30, from Ilesha in Osun state, Nigeria. I was born in Ilesha and the first in the family of five. I am an Agricultural Engineer by profession and an entrepreneur.

Project Description

DOTEB AGRICULTURAL COMPANY is a community based project that designs and fabricates good and efficient processing machinery for various post- harvest activities of agricultural crops from harvest to storage using solar/motor. We will also be providing training services for people on farming using the latest technology from DOTEB AGRICULTURAL COMPANY. Our business will provide the products to our customers by making use of our acquired skills, experience and expertise in fabricating the latest technology for agricultural use. Using different marketing strategies, we will be selling our products to farmers/companies based in the Northern region of Nigeria and also exporting it to other states/countries.

What Problems Are We Are Trying To Solve

The use of traditional method for processing crops is predominant here in Northern region of Nigeria. These methods do not support large-scale processing of crops, especially for commercial purposes. Presently in Nigeria, the region that is the highest producer of grains is the northern part of the country and it was observed that most processing of these crops was done by hand. This is time wasting, energy sapping, tedious, back straining and uneconomical. This method also introduces contaminant into the product which makes it unhygienic and wasteful.

Development of these machines records few success and this is why the manual method remains the only means of processing crops in this part. Farmers cannot afford the efficient but high cost of imported processing machinery which is not only costly but also requires a skilled technician to be able to operate it. All these problems are being addressed and will be solved by DOTEB AGRICULTURAL COMPANY.

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Motivation and benefits for my community

Seeing how much stress farmers go through to process their crops, with the high cost of labour and charges, coupled with the increasing numbers of unemployed graduates roaming on the streets with their certificate actually influenced my decision to become an entrepreneur in my field of study

Benefit

  • Help the farmers to process their crops without having to purchase expensive foreign machine
  • Reduces post-harvest losses of agricultural crops
  • Reduces high cost of labour, stress and saves time
  • Provide job opportunities for people and also help build more entrepreneurs in our line of business
  • Encourages farmers to plant more because they can buy and process their crops themselves
  • Improves farmer’s standard of living.

How do we achieve our goals

  • Effective and Efficient Distribution Network: The importance of such cannot be overemphasized in our line of business. We intend to establish an excellent distribution network that will enable us to rapidly respond to customers’ orders, and be available in remote areas our competitor has not yet exploited.
  • Sales:  Proper marketing with vigorous advertisement will ensure the product is made available to the target market and Good customer relationship
  • Training our youths on fabricating good and efficient machinery for farmers

Progress so far

  • We have carried out physical survey using a well-structured questionnaire to our target customers to know their challenges and how we can help solve it.
  • We have tested the prototype of these machines for its efficiency on different crops

Measuring Our Success

Our success will be measured by:

  • How many jobs our business has created
  • How satisfied our customers are with our products, this will be done by carrying out customer opinion survey and market research to know if we are
  • How well our business activities impacts the community
  • Profitability

Budget

First Tranche (3 months)

Land: $1200
Permits: $100

Second Tranche (4 months)

Electrical Installation: $500
Machinery and tools: $2000

Third Tranche (3 months)

Structures: $1000
Work Uniforms: $200

Blogpost and picture submitted by Agbelesola Dolapo (Nigeria) – dolapoagbele[at]gmail.com

The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

This post is published as proposal #277 of “YAP” – our “Youth Agripreneur Project”.

The first selection of the winners will be based on the number of comments, likes and views each proposal gets.

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“YAP” is part of the #GCARD3 process, the third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development.

Published by kovamic87

208 thoughts on “YAP Proposal #277: Designing and fabricating efficient processing machinery (Agbelesola Dolapo, Nigeria)”

  2. This is a good concept. it will help solve the challenges farmers face with post harvest losses of crops

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  3. What a very nice support for Agricultural field sector in Nigeria especially the Northern part of our Country. This your effort will surely help famers that are discourage in producing much crops due to the expensive in processing it. But due to the Local machine available at your own extreme end,this will help famers to produce more crops and very soon food processing problems will be solve. I really commend your effort. Thank you.

    Reply

  4. This is quite a lovely business idea, it’ll be a double-bottom opportunity of both community development and also profitable. I’m happy this kind of idea will boost sales for farmers and help them become more profitable.

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  6. This will help reduce post harvest losses of crops. would love to work with you on this

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  8. I am a farmer and am happy to see an engineer think in this direction. we need more of our locally produced machinery.

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  23. This is great,am impressed you have a great idea that will help solve post harvest problems which is one of our major agricultural problems. But I have some questions for you.

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  26. you are welcome, my question for you is how sure are you that these machinery will work efficiently

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  27. u are welcome, my question for you is how sure are you that these machinery will work efficiently

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  36. @ Emma, we have carried out a survey on out taget customers and the reult shows that these farmers look up to us for solutions. And once we are able to that, they will be ready to try our products and services. Thanks

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    1. Oh. That’s great. They will become your customers once they discover the uniqueness in your product.

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    1. @premiere, agricultural engineering is not only meant for men, we have women who are agricultural engineers. I believe what a man can, a woman can do better. thanks

      Reply

  39. I agree with greenland enterprise, theachines has to be subsidized otherwise. The gamers will not be able to afford it.

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  41. Thanks Janet, we have few fabricators here but the challenge is most of this machines are not efficient and causes more damages to agricultural crops.

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  43. Thanks Janet. Yes, our machines will be sold at an affordable rate especially to local farmers.

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    1. We will be fabricating all sorts of machinery that has to do with crop processing. I.e grains, legumes, roots and tubers e.t.c.

      Reply

    1. We will be fabricating all sorts of machinery that has to do with crop processing. I.e grains, legumes, roots and tubers e.t.c.

      Reply

    1. Thanks idowu,
      The success of our business depends on how well we are able to satisfy our customers. what our customers will have to do for our business to be successful is to
      1. Change their traditional way of processing and storing agricultural crops and embrace/use our products
      2. Give feedback and rating for our products

      Reply

    1. We will sustain our business by partnering farmers, companies, local government, and state government. Thanks babs

      Reply

  50. A right step in the right direction, to make the machineries for processing available and even closer to the farmers at affordable price is worth commendating, keep it up

    Reply

    1. @taryour, As mentioned above, we will be fabricating machinery for all agricultural crops. Thanks

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    1. Our products are unique because the project is community based, our machinery are highly efficient and we will be using the 4p’s strategy which will definetly make make us stand out in our chosen market. Thanks

      Reply

    1. @thompson, Yes we do.as stated in one of my comment, we are not gender biased. This will also help promote gender equality. Thanks

      Reply

  58. Doteb, talking about the local farmers, will there be training on the technical know-how of these machines for the local farmers??

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    1. Ope, these machinery will come with simple design. But notwithstanding, we will put our customers through on to how operate and maintain these machinery.

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  61. if a woman decides to go in the way of a man then she should be encouraged? there very few women who studied agric engineering, with this u have my support.

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    1. Tayour, I do not believe agric engineering is only meant for men. I believe in what a man can do, a woman can do much better. All the same, thanks for your words of encouragement. I appreciate.

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  66. I agree with you on one of your comment about using 4p’s strategy. It shows you your business will be successful, no doubt.

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  67. Am encouraged your business will not only create jobs but also promote gender equality as stated I’m your response. Great.

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    2. No remmy, its not meant for Kaduna residents only but for all other States in Nigeria and Africa as a whole

      Reply

    1. Yes ope, we cannot expect the government to do all. This projecf will help promote entrepreneurs and create jobs which will definetely reduce unemployment .

      Reply

  102. Good job and interested in some machines

    Reply

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