Open AccessDESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A SMALL SCALE COCOPEAT COMPACTION MACHINE
Author(s) -
Evans Magara,
Abel Mayaka,
Charles Ondieki,
Bernard W. Ikua
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of engineering applied science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2455-2143
DOI - 10.33564/ijeast.2021.v06i05.010
Subject(s) - agriculture , husk , crop , scale (ratio) , agricultural science , mathematics , business , environmental science , agronomy , botany , biology , geography , cartography , ecology
Coconut is one of the major crops grown bysmall-scale farmers in Kenya coast. This crop has a greatpotential to contribute to the economy of the region,owing to the wide applications of its products. Virtuallyall parts of the crop including its leaves, fruit, stem androots are useful for many products, such as food,beverages, cosmetics, medicine, furniture, textiles andcocopeat. Cocopeat is a by-product in fibre productionfrom coconut husks. The cocopeat is used as a plantingmedium in soilless culture in agricultural production andas a soil substitute in containerized crop production.Recently, these soilless media have received much interestespecially in commercial applications in Kenya, especiallyin horticultural farms. Since the cocopeat is a loosematerial, its transportation poses a challenge due to itsbulkiness. Therefore a need for compacting it for ease oftransportation. For this purpose, an automated cocopeatblock making machine was developed to compact theloose cocopeat into uniform blocks to facilitate stackingand ease of transportation from source to agriculturalfarms across the country. The machine was automated.