Tractor: Means for easy farming and supplying water

Two youngsters have come together to work using their initiatives to create jobs, eradicate poverty facing the nation and make Nigeria proud by manufacturing a tractor. BINTA SHAMA reports.

Ismaila Suraju, a 22-year-old, Gbagyi by tribe from Kuje Area Council of the FCT, a graduate of the Government Science and Technology College, Garki Area, said, “I will love to see my country standout and stay away from  importing things but, rather exporting to other countries. 

How the invention all began

My innovation started years back when I was a little boy in primary school. I used to make crafts in cartons. Then one day, we were instructed by our teacher  to make a craft which I did with carton and I came the overall best of all the students in my school and then  my classmates fell in love with my handwork and started asking me to make for them which I did and sold for N20 each and since then I fell in love with my creativity knowing full well that it could fetch me something positive to be a support to my family.

I later expanded to aluminum in my secondary school where we went for exhibition at our JET club which is the Junior Engineering Technology and NTA exhibition respectively, where I came up as the overall best out of all that participated from the 36 states including FCT in 2013.

I could recall back in 2011 when we traveled to Brazil for an exhibition with the same JET club but we were awarded only certificates of participation. Due to our late registration we were not included with other participants there. We were 21 in number that went, teachers, students, and coordinators inclusive. We were in Brazil for a week and 4 days, though one week was for the exhibition and 4 days to rest.

The invention

Like you saw my inventions displayed, they have to do with series of innovations but I will like to discuss on tractor alone then later come up with the rest as soon as I get to perfection of each.

I used to supply water within my community Chikoku  under Kuje using my community. It  can even carry farm and  market goods, though the capacity of the engine of the tractor is not as strong as it is supposed to be because of the partial invention I did on it. If only the Federal government can support me I will be able to create a bigger invention which would help in planting and harvesting of crops. During the raining season I make like seven hundred to a thousand daily but in this raining I make between one thousand and two thousand naira daily using my tractor to get water from the borehole for the community.

My assistant, Ahmadu Yusuf, who has been working with me alongside is actually learning from me for free am not collecting a dime from him neither am I paying him anything because I am still not paid by any one as well.

What I usually do at my leisure time is to create awareness and to also checkmate my work by displaying my invention at bus stops or at public places where people show their appreciation in my invention and they support me by dropping anything they wish to like money. It took me two years to be able to couple the tractor for it to work. Just like I mentioned earlier at the Raw Materials Research and Development Council.

Pleading for government’s support

The Chambers of Commerce and Industry gave me a laptop which has helped me access the internet personally and at my convenience to find more designs and technology to match my creative work and a financial reward of fifty thousand which I use to add up to build the tractor. The tractor cost me two hundred thousand to build but I believe that if the Federal government will help, it will improve my invention and I will be able to make a standard one that might cost five hundred thousand that people will be able to easily afford to use on their farms for planting and harvesting. We were brought in by the Abuja Chambers and Industry for the RMRDC exhibition which is a very good initiative and my desire is to see the Federal government assist me.

I wish that the federal government supports me with a scholarship to travel and learn more because there are new and better inventions and technologies across our country and I wish for my country to match the present states of other countries that have embraced Science Technology and Innovation (STI). I learnt a lot at RMRDC and they help me to acquire a lot of knowledge about health, for instance they said mixing a lot of ugwu leaf juice and maltina drink is like blood tonic and so also using sugarcane liquid as sweetener. This gave me a reason to think more and to see how I can make a change by making something out of nothing.

According to Siraju they made the invention from tiny stuff. Appealing to the federal government to consider their hard work and creativity which they have put into their innovation in order to empower them so they can be able to make a bigger invention.

“The federal government should upgrade and help us by empowering so we will be able to get a place or site where we will be able to provide in many quantities and also create jobs for others and in disguise trash away poverty from the grassroots and then from communities.

“I wish to tell the young ones like me out there not to give up on their dreams but to sit down, think and do research work in order to continue doing their passion and to be persistent in everything they do,” he said.

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