Long before farm machinery came into place, agricultural practices were done manually which consumed a lot of time and required a lot of manpower. Due to the challenges, there were too many post-harvest losses and food wastage. The introduction of machines like maize Sheller has been too beneficial to farmers and a boost to food security.
Maize Sheller is the equipment used in the separation of maize seeds from the cobs. As a farmer, harvesting your crops is important but the most important practice that when you fail to carry out properly will make your farming worthless is the post-harvest activities. One of them in maize production is shelling, a practice that is done well by a Sheller machine.
Figure 1: A maize Sheller
Having known the machine, let me take you through some of the benefits you will incur while using it.
- Reduced labour costs
The main purpose of getting into agri-business is to earn income. How do we get a meaningful benefit from our farms? This is very simple, minimizing costs. Imagine a situation in that you have produced over 150 bags of unshelled maize and you employ labourfor manual shelling, how many people will you employ, at which wage rate? All these are solved by just one Sheller machine.
- Little time is required to perform the shelling
Time is a resource, a farmer always competes with time to do the various farm practices. After harvesting it is upon the farmer to speed up the shelling process to dry the maize before the onset of rains for another season. Using the maize Sheller maize has enabled the farmers to be on time hence perfectly doing the farm practices.
- Reduced post-harvest losses
Farming is a business, losses negatively affect any business. After-farm losses occur due to delays in shelling, drying and storage. The shelling machine is here to ensure your shelling is done on time hence the drying and finally storage. Is this not helpful to the farmers and the world maize consumers?
- Cheap to purchase with low running and maintenance costs
Maize sheller machine price in Kenya is affordable to most corn farmers. Apart from the low cost of buying it, the farming machine only requires simple maintenance practices like oiling the moving parts, cleaning after use and replacement of the worn-out parts. This has made this tool to be an effective partner to maize farmers.
- Portable
Another importance of the machine is its portability. It can be transported up to the farm site hence saving the farmer the cost of transporting the unshelled maize to the shelling site. The portability nature is also beneficial to the farm since the cobs that remain will form part of the humus hence helping in making the farm fertile.
Conclusion
Technology and the revolution of agriculture is an idea that all should embrace. Most of the farm machines especially the maize Sheller are here to make food more available and to promote the welfare of our hardworking farmers. Most countries in the globe consider agriculture as the backbone of their economy but fail to revolutionize it hence always languishing in poverty.
