Farm Tools
Senior 1 · Agriculture
Farm Tools
Lesson 2 of 4
18 min
Let's begin
A cooperative store in Nyamasheke keeps dozens of tools for its members. If they are thrown into one heap, nobody can find the secateurs when the coffee needs pruning. If they are hung in groups, by the kind of work they do, the storekeeper can see at a glance what is missing.
Grouping tools by the work they do is called classification. It helps you choose the right tool, plan what a farm needs to buy and organise a store.
The most useful way to classify small farm tools is by their main use. The classes follow the order of work in a season: clear the land, cultivate it, plant, look after the crop, harvest, carry and measure; and alongside all of this, care for the animals and repair the tools.
| Class | Purpose | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Land-clearing tools | Remove bush, grass, trees and stumps | Panga (machete), slasher, axe, mattock, pick-axe |
| 2. Cultivation (tillage) tools | Dig, loosen, turn and level the soil | Hoe, fork hoe, spade, garden fork, rake, mattock |
| 3. Planting tools | Mark rows, make holes, sow and transplant | Garden line and pegs, tape measure, dibber, garden trowel, hoe |
| 4. Crop-maintenance tools | Weed, water, prune and protect the crop | Weeding hoe, watering can, knapsack sprayer, secateurs, pruning saw, pruning knife |
| 5. Harvesting tools | Gather the crop | Sickle, panga, harvesting knife, fork hoe (for roots and tubers), baskets |
| 6. Carrying (transport) tools | Move soil, manure, inputs and produce | Wheelbarrow, shovel (for loading), baskets, buckets, sacks |
| 7. Measuring tools | Measure length, area, mass and volume | Tape measure, ranging poles, weighing scale, measuring jug or cylinder for chemicals, rain gauge |
| 8. Livestock tools | Feed, water, handle, treat and milk animals, and clean their houses | Feeding and water troughs, milking bucket, hoof trimmer, syringe and needle, drenching gun, ear-tag applicator, grooming brush, shovel and broom |
| 9. Workshop (repair) tools | Make, sharpen and repair tools and structures | Hammer, saw, file, pliers, spanner, screwdriver |
Some tools do several jobs. A panga clears bush and harvests bananas; a hoe cultivates, makes planting holes and weeds; a shovel loads a wheelbarrow and cleans a cow shed. In an exam, classify a tool by its main use, and mention a second class only if the question allows it.
On Rwanda's small, steep, terraced plots most work is done with hand tools; powered machines are used more on flat, consolidated land such as valley-bottom rice and maize schemes.
Question: Classify each tool by its main use: slasher, dibber, knapsack sprayer, sickle, wheelbarrow, rake, hoof trimmer, file, tape measure, axe.
Method: for each tool ask, "What job is it mainly bought for?"
| Class | Tools from the list |
|---|---|
| Land clearing | Slasher, axe |
| Cultivation | Rake |
| Planting | Dibber |
| Crop maintenance | Knapsack sprayer |
| Harvesting | Sickle |
| Carrying | Wheelbarrow |
| Measuring | Tape measure |
| Livestock | Hoof trimmer |
| Workshop | File |
Check: 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 10 tools, so none has been missed.
Tip
Memory hook: follow the season: "Clear, Cultivate, Plant, Protect, Pick, Carry", then add Measure, Livestock and Workshop.
Exam technique: set a classification answer out as a table with the class in one column and the tools in the other; it is quick to write and easy for the examiner to mark.
Name the class of tools to which each belongs: (a) secateurs, (b) mattock, (c) garden line.
Solution: (a) Crop maintenance (pruning). (b) Land clearing (it is also used for cultivation of very hard ground). (c) Planting (and measuring).
Give two examples of livestock tools and the use of each.
Solution: Any two: milking bucket (collecting milk); feeding trough (holding feed); hoof trimmer (cutting overgrown hooves); syringe (giving injections); drenching gun (giving liquid dewormers by mouth).
Explain why a panga can be placed in more than one class.
Solution: It is used both to clear bush (land clearing) and to cut banana bunches or sugarcane (harvesting), so it serves more than one kind of work.
Why are powered machines used less on Rwandan hillside farms than in valley-bottom schemes?
Solution: Hillside plots are small, steep and terraced, so machines cannot move on them easily or safely, and the plots are too small to repay the cost. Valley-bottom schemes are flat and consolidated into larger blocks.
Summary
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
