The Agricultural and Bio Engineering Major

in CampusConnect3 years ago

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AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING

What is Agricultural Engineering? Agricultural engineering is an engineering field that applies the knowledge of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Engineering in the production of food, timber, and machines. This field of engineering has proven to be very important for the survival of humans. The global human population is on the rise and the only way to meet the growing needs of people is by increasing efficiency in food production.

The Agricultural Engineering major:

We can say that agricultural engineering is divided into 4 parts, which are Soil and Water Engineering, Power Engineering, Post-harvest processing, and Waste management.

Soil and Water Engineering:

What is soil and water engineering? Soil and Water Engineering is the branch of agricultural engineering that deals with Irrigation, Aquaculture and Drainage. This field is all about addressing soil challenges, whether natural or man-made. For most parts of the world, agricultural production cannot be efficient without irrigation. I mean we can't only rely on rainwater for the survival of our crops, because of this soil and water engineers are tasked with finding creative solutions to water problems. These solutions include things like the construction of dams, building terraces, building embankments to hold back water, Surface and subsurface irrigation, etc.

Power Engineering:

What is Power Engineering? This is the aspect of Agricultural Engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of farm machinery. Every single machine used on the farmland is manufactured by the Power Engineer. The power Engineer is just as important as any other engineer. Some of the machines designed by the Power Engineer are Harrows, Tractors, Shellers, Combine harvesters, just to mention a few.

Post-Harvest Engineering:

What is Post-Harvest Engineering: Post-Harvest engineering deals with the first stage of food processing. It is the processing process carried out immediately after harvest. It is in fact the most important process in the food production chain. Without the first stage of processing, there would be no food for consumption. The steps involved are drying, salting, fermenting, winnowing, deshelling, threshing, etc.

Waste Management:

We can all agree that agricultural waste cannot be disposed of carelessly, it just does not work that way. So for that reason, there is this field called Waste Management. some of the waste products in agriculture are grasses, animal dung, dirty water, animal blood, food peels(yam, plantain, banana ), etc. I will talk about only one way of waste management article, Biogas. Biogas is produced by allowing agricultural waste to age and ferment. The fermentation process takes place in specially designed storage tanks for easy extraction. The gas produced from the process can be used for cooking, and pretty much everything we use liquified natural gas for. As waste management continues, we could supplement natural gas with biogas in the near future.

CONCLUSION

The aim of this piece is to help tell people more about Agricultural Engineering and to help make our world a better place. With Agricultural Engineers around, I am confident that no food challenge is insurmountable.

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 3 years ago 

Agricultural engineering is really a course of study that would favor a lot of Nigerian students as the government is looking to encourage more Nigerian students towards agricultural related ventures. Thus creating an avenue for more agricultural engineers

 3 years ago 

Hello @nwabueze, this is a great post about Agricultural engineering, you have taken us by the hand and lead us through the importance of this discipline.

Mind if I ask if this is your field of study and if it is why you have chosen this noble discipline...

Your post has passed, Campus connect Plagiarism Test, keep making original content on campus connect.

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 3 years ago 

Thanks for the review. Yes, Agricultural Engineering is my course of study and I chose it because of the love I have for technology as it relates with food production.

This is a very nice post @nwabueze. When one hear about Agriculture they think it is only about farming but thank God for your post, now we can see the diverse range within the scope of agricultural practices.

 3 years ago 

I wish Nigeria government can make more reseaexh on agricultural engineering