Agricultural Engineering Dept.

This course is meant to introduce students in Agricultural & Environmental Engineering to agricultural machinery. Topics to be covered include: Introduction to Agricultural Mechanisation, needs and benefits of agricultural mechanisation. Power sources for agricultural operations. The farm tractor, equipment for tillage operations, ploughs and ploughing including systematic methods of ploughing in lands. Elementary soil tillage dynamics.. Equipment for planting/seeding and broadcasting, calibration of planters, fertilizer distribution, field crop sprayer and equipments for harvesting. Grain drying, storage and processing equipment, dairy equipment, agricultural machinery management, field evaluation and criteria for selection, owning, hiring and replacement of agricultural machines.

Advanced Hydraulics is defined as the science that deals with the behaviour of fluids at rest or in motion, and the interaction of fluids with solids or other fluids at the boundaries. Hydraulics deals with liquid flow in pipes and open channels. Fluid flow is classified as external and internal, depending on whether the fluid is forced to flow over a surface or in a conduit. This course considers internal flow where the conduit is completely filled with the fluid, and the flow is driven primarily driven by a pressure difference. It also deals deeply with the study of open channel flow, where the conduit is partially filled by the fluid and thus the flow is partially bounded by solid surfaces. The course starts with the general physical description of internal flow through pipes and ducts including the entrance region and the fully developed region. Thereafter, the pressure drop correlations associated with pipe flow for both laminar and turbulent flows will be introduced. Channel design and flows analysis through different types of channels will be explained to students. Flows through weirs (rectangular, triangular and trapezoidal|) will be taught extensively to students.

Land clearing and development is fundamental to mechanised (large scale) agriculture. However, the process is highly dependent on the natural environment for land, nutrients, water for irrigation, and other ecological services. If not done sustainably, Land clearing and development process can result in serious environmental risks and problems. The environmental impacts and human health related issues arising either directly or indirectly by land clearing and its subsequent development can be tremendous. These impacts can range from habitat fragmentation to loss of biodiversity to subsequent failure of ecosystems to decreased groundwater infiltration, increased surface runoff and erosion and increased sediment runoff into streams and other water bodies and to many other issues of concern. . Erosion and sedimentation often results in environmental damage to abutting properties. In addition land acquisition and clearing constitute a major bottleneck to the development of Agribusiness in Nigeria. Several would be investors had been discouraged by the enormous cost and the associated risk in land clearing and development. Procedure for estimating land clearing and development for agriculture remain cumbersome, while decision process on method of clearing, ownership or leasing of clearing equipment, land sourcing, is freight with many unsustainable assumptions. In this course, students will be introduced to the rules/laws guiding land acquisition and development for agriculture in Nigeria. Vegetation distribution and characteristic of soil profiles in Nigeria, Techniques for deciding method of land clearing, proposal and budgeting for land clearing, machine and equipment for land clearing and development , procedure for land development, Farm planning etc

This course is meant to expose students in Agricultural & Environmental Engineering to design of agricultural machinery. As a practical course, the focus is to impart useful skills on the students in order to enhance their imaginative ability and to translate same into devices and systems that can be integrated into process lines where necessary. Topics to be covered include: Machine design processes and procedures, Materials of construction, selection, strength properties, stress analysis, costing, design of machine elements, machine fabrication and typical design of low cost agricultural machinery, problems and prospects of agricultural machinery development and commercial manufacturers in Nigeria