In Cameroon, most farmers practice irrigation adapted to their budget and technical capacities. These low budget irrigation schemes are the mostly spread between small scale farmers which constitute the majority of Cameroonian producers, but relatively few studies have been carried out on many of them and few official information exists on them. This study hence focuses on characterization and performance evaluation of one of such systems. Irrigation is carried out from planting to the early development phase, by pumping with fuel as an energy source, and watering the farm with a walker hose, until visible saturation. The output per unit irrigated crop area is of the order of 13583USD/ha for a production of 3000crates sold at an average price of 8USD. This value represents the production output and not only the irrigation output. The relative irrigation supply however was not favorable, as it indicated that the water supplied by irrigation did not cover up to 20% of the plant water needs, most probably due to the high irrigation intervals, causing the plants to be maintained at MAD for long periods of time. Future studies should hence find methods of ameliorating the performances of this system by acting on the farmer’s technical level and social setting.
With a view to contributing to the improvement of the quantitative and qualitative production of honey, a human-powered centrifugal extractor was designed, manufactured and tested at the Agricultural Engineering laboratory of the University of Dschang. The design was based on standard frame sizes for modern hive supers, mechanical design standards and honey quality standards. The tests were carried out with frames of Langstroth hive supers from an apiary in the town of Bafoussam I. Apart from the gear system constructed from cast iron, the other components of the puller were constructed from galvanized and stainless steel. The components of this machine are as follows: (a) a tank with a diameter of 650 mm, a height of 800 mm and a thickness of 1 mm; (b) a rotating basket with a diameter of 600 mm, a height of 550 mm and a thickness of 6 mm; (c) a transmission system consisting of a bevel gear, transmission ratio 1: 4, module 1.5 mm with a driving wheel and a pinion; (d) two 20 mm internal diameter ball bearings; (e) a 20 mm diameter transmission shaft; (f) a centering and clamping plate made of length 650 mm, width 80 mm and thickness 5 mm. The machine stand has a diameter of 651 mm, a height of 1000 mm and a diameter of 21 mm. Three extraction tests were carried out. The results obtained were as follows: average extraction rate: 78.36%; average hourly capacity: 35.35 kg/h, average mass of solid particles: 0.098 g/100 g of honey. The fabricated extractor will allow beekeepers to make several harvests over the year because the bee cells are not destroyed during the extraction. This preservation of aveoles will lead to the sowing of other hives after extraction. This machine is simple to operate and maintain; you just need to clean it and lubricate the gear system and the bearings regularly.