A Tougher Breed of Agricultural Equipment is Essential in Africa
While a vast area of the African continent is totally unsuitable for farming purposes and is likely to remain so, in practice, many of those areas in which it is possible to cultivate crops can also present some severe challenges to the farmer. The challenges in question are of two main types: Extremes of climate, and rough terrain. In many cases, farms on the continent are quite isolated from major population centres, creating difficulties if damaged farming machinery should need repair or spare parts. The result is that any agricultural equipment intended for use in Africa needs to be more durable and dependable than most in order to stand up to the tough conditions.
Although there are plenty of vineyards and fruit orchards of all varieties, maize and sugar cane are the predominant crops in most parts of the continent. Once an entirely manual process, the nature of the latter crop lends itself to the use of specialised machinery. These fall mainly into two categories, designed to facilitate the loading and haulage operations. Although, traditionally, the cutting is still performed by labourers with hand tools in many areas, including some of the cane fields in KwaZulu-Natal, manual cutting is slowly being replaced by mechanical cutting. A rotating disk with sharp blades is attached to a tractor and cuts off the standing stalks at ground level before delivering them into a bin and discharging the bundled stalks, at intervals, ready for loading.
Among the most common items of agricultural equipment used by cane growers in Africa are the incredibly manoeuvrable 3-wheeled cane loaders that can spin through 180 degrees in their own length and travel as fast in reverse as when moving forwards. When the time comes to purchase one of these, the first choice for most farmers on the continent will be one of the iconic yellow models in the world-class Bell range. Dedicated workhorses by anyone’s definition, they exert comparatively little ground pressure and their award-winning design offers a wide range of options combined with exceptionally economical operational costs.
Whether cut manually or automatically, the bundled stalks must be transported to premises where the sugar can be extracted and refined into its various derivatives. The role of the loader is to grab a bundle with its hydraulically operated, front-loading arm, adding more stalks until its jaws are full to capacity, and then to transfer them to a cane carrier. Consisting of a large trailer and haulage tractor, they are designed to carry between 30 000 and 50 000 kg of cane stalks, depending upon the engine power. Also available from Bell, the leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment in Africa offers a choice of two models with a net engine power of either 72 kW, 104 kW, or 125 kW.
Though designed to be virtually indestructible, like most machines, these cane loaders and haulage tractors are likely to require attention from time to time and in many parts of the continent, Bell depends upon its accredited distributor, Kanu Equipment, both as a distributor of Bell products and to provide expert maintenance and support. Kanu carries all essential spares to ensure that owners of Bell agricultural equipment in Africa experience minimal downtime.
