Scientists at Makerere School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences have over the years engaged in manufacturing portable tractors for various farm operations. These operations range from ploughing, weeding, sowing seed to harvesting, threshing, and irrigation.
This innovation is by scientists majoring in Agricultural Science and Engineering at Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK).
Prof Noble Banadda, a lecturer in the area of bioengineering at the Institute, explained that the first locally made tractors at the Institute were done in 1955 by visiting researchers from developing countries and scientists working at Makerere University.
The First Prototype
They named the first prototype Kabanyolo 1 and the team kept on improving the technology which resulted in other two consequent models named Kabanyolo 2 and 3.
This was to ensure that students pursuing courses in agriculture engineering learn how to operate and drive a tractor on a farm.
John Tumwijukye, from the department of technology, irrigation, and engineering at MUARIK explains that the tractors were manufactured with the main aim of practically training students on farm operations.
The models were later fabricated and sold to farmers not only in Uganda but across East Africa.
They were fabricated and assembled by scientists of Makerere with colleagues from developing countries including visiting scientists from the United Kingdom. The first model lacked a number of features such as comfortable seats for the driver and the operating gear was not well fabricated but the second and third models had most of the required parts.
Improved models
Today scientists have improved these models to a multi-purpose MV Mulimi which were developed and become operational in 2016 by a team of scientists from CAES with Prof Banadda as the principal investigator.