…With NCC Research Support
A cybertronic data harvester has been developed by students of the Faculty of Technology Building, University of Ibadan. The feat came about through a sponsored research work by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
More encouraging, according to the study which was reported on the NCC website , was the fact that mass production of the product will bring down the cost to N20,000 because some of the needed materials are sourced locally.
The students explained that the prototype has a complete CAD design that can be mass produced and marketed in a way that will encourage youths desirous of engaging in farming activities.
As an encouragement, the students appealed to NCC to facilitate a meeting of innovators with potential investors in the bid to commercialise the product.
The students who commended the 85% success rate of the project, urged the NCC to come up with a profit- oriented business model that will make the mass production a reality.
Apart from the Cybertronic Harvester, which will enhance precision farming, the research effort also led to the design of a UAV for facilitating data harvesting electronic communication system to designated farm locations.
“…..we hope that the present work incites interest in the systems developed and the general applications of electronics and computers in agriculture. In view of this, we envisage that this work would also improve scientific collaborations between scientists, engineers, and farmers to fully exploit the capabilities of the developed systems,” they said .