DESIGN OF AN IMPROVED AGRI-CART TO OPTIMIZE FARM OPERATIONS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE FARMS.
Scale of farming and localization are requisite factors in the design of an agricultural machinery that determines the suitability of the machine or equipment in any given geographic location. Factoring the size of land in design, smallholders can access machinery that is appropriately sized. Adopting this approach, an Agri-cart was designed to facilitate field operations in small and medium scale farms within Nyeri County. To achieve this overall objective, three specific objectives were formulated to assist in the design process. They included as follows (1) to evaluate the total tractive effort to thrust the cart and to develop a computer program to simplify in the analysis of materials (2) to establish the minimum diameter to satisfy the strength and rigidity requirements of the shafts (3) to simulate and visualize the effects of displacement, stress and strain on the shafts and cart chassis subjected to external loads.
BSC. BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING
