National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation develops `Garri' Frying Machine

garri’ frying machine ’

The National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM) had developed a `garri’ frying machine called `NCAM Mechanical Cassava Fryer’ to aid cassava farmers enhance their production.


A Senior Technician at the centre, Mr David Jaiyeoba, said that the machine had the capacity of frying 300kg of `garri’ per batch in 40 minutes.

According to him, the machines are indigenous to Nigeria and can be purchased by an individual farmer or farmers’ cooperative societies at affordable rates from the centre.

``We did not import any part of these machines; we fabricated everything here locally.``The country does not need to depend on India or China for simple technologies as Nigeria has qualified personnel to do the job.
``We have qualified engineers, who will look at the output‎, advantages, disadvantages and performance evaluation of these technologies before showcasing them.

``After research, we have also made it very affordable for farmers to buy them as individuals or as cooperative societies,’’ he said.

Jaiyeoba said that the traditional technology ‎of frying `garri’ exposed women to open flames, which made their body temperature to be high throughout the working hours.

According to him, this can lead to health complications and in some cases untimely death.The technician said the new technology requires little amount of heat to function; it can retain heat through an insulator and also has lagging which prevents heat loss.

``It also has a steering ‎which does not require the operator to steer manually, hence preventing the operators from being exposed to excess heat,’’ Jaiyeoba said.

On the maintenance, he said that it was very cheap to maintain if the instructions were adhered to, adding that the machines had one year guarantee on purchase.

Jaiyeoba said that as an agency of the Federal Government, they were dedicated to adding value to ensure improved output in the sector.

`` NCAM is an agency of the government under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
``We are saddled with the responsibility of providing simple indigenous technology to aid farmers.

``The centre has developed other simple machines including Motorised Groundnut Decorticator, Motorised Mellon Sheller, Motorise Cassava Grater, Fish Smoking Kiln, NCAM Palm Nut Cracker and Motorised Rice Tresher,’’ Jaiyeoba said.