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The Zambian-German Agricultural Knowledge and Training Centre (AKTC) is a lead promoter of Mechanization and Mechanized Conservation Agriculture (MCA) in Zambia. From the interactions with Zambian farmers, it has been noticed that despite the fact that farmers are aware of the importance of mechanization in agriculture, the adoption of mechanization is often not feasible as many farmers are lacking the technical know-how on how they can maintain their machinery in a manner that prolongs the machinery’s life span.
The AKTC has been highlighting that the maintenance of a tractor is key to farm mechanization sustainability and therefore encourages farmers to put it to practice. One of the key maintenance activities is tractor servicing. Timely tractor servicing is important as it ensures that the tractor’s optimum performance is utilized.
In this regard, AKTC conducted a hands-on tractor servicing exercise open to the public on Tuesday 28th June 2022. Three tractor owners, one tractor operator and student participated in this exercise.
The tractor servicing exercise was supervised by AKTC’s Machinery Expert Mr. Martin Sikanyika. He began the servicing exercise by explaining the difference between servicing, maintenance and repair. He pointed out that maintenance is aimed at ensuring that a tractor keeps working in its optimal state while repair is aimed at restoring its functionality after a breakdown.
The trainees were later engaged in a hands-on tractor servicing exercise that included air filter cleaning, fuel and oil filter change, engine oil change, radiator cleaning. Mr. Sikanyika took time to answer questions from the trainees and clarified some misconceptions regarding tractor servicing.
If you would like to learn more about the project activities and trainings, we offer at the AKTC in Zambia, please contact our team leader on-site Helmut Anschütz (helmut.anschuetz [at] afci.de) or our project manager Nora Reichmann (nora.reichmann [at] afci.de) in our headquarters in Bonn.