Farm Tools
Senior 1 · Agriculture
Farm Tools
Lesson 4 of 4
18 min
Let's begin
Two neighbours buy the same hoe on the same day. One leaves hers in the field after work, caked with wet soil; within a year the blade is thin with rust and the handle has split. The other scrapes his hoe clean, dries it, wipes the blade with a little used oil and hangs it in the house. Years later it is still working.
Maintenance is the regular care that keeps tools in good working order. It costs a few minutes and a little oil, and it saves money, effort and injuries.
| Practice | How and why |
|---|---|
| Clean after every use | Scrape off soil, wipe off plant sap. Wet soil left on steel makes it rust; sap makes blades sticky. |
| Dry and oil | Dry the metal, then wipe it with a little oil or grease. The oil keeps air and water off the steel, which stops rust (rust is iron that has combined with oxygen, the same oxidation that reddens soils). |
| Sharpen cutting edges | Fix the tool firmly, then file the edge at its original angle, pushing the file in one direction, away from your body. A sharpened hoe, panga, slasher or sickle cuts with less force. |
| Repair or replace handles | Replace cracked handles; smooth rough ones with sandpaper to prevent blisters and splinters; tighten a loose head by driving in a wedge. |
| Lubricate moving parts | Oil the wheelbarrow axle, the pivot of secateurs and the pump of a sprayer so they move freely and do not wear out. |
| Tighten and replace small parts | Tighten loose nuts and bolts; replace worn sprayer washers and nozzles, and a flat wheelbarrow tyre. |
| Paint | Paint bare metal on wheelbarrows and troughs to prevent rust; paint handles so borrowed tools can be recognised. |
Question: A hoe costs 4,500 Frw (illustrative price). Left outside after work, it lasts 3 seasons. Cleaned, oiled and stored properly it lasts 9 seasons, and the oil and sandpaper cost 200 Frw per season. (a) Find the cost per season in each case. (b) How much does a cooperative with 20 hoes save per season by maintaining them?
(a) Neglected: 4,500 ÷ 3 = 1,500 Frw per season.
Maintained: 4,500 ÷ 9 = 500 Frw, plus 200 Frw care = 700 Frw per season.
(b) Saving per hoe = 1,500 − 700 = 800 Frw per season. For 20 hoes: 20 × 800 = 16,000 Frw per season.
Tip
Memory hook: "Clean, Dry, Oil, Sharpen, Store": do it in that order after every working day.
Exam technique: maintenance answers score best when each practice is tied to a tool and a reason: "oil the pivot of the secateurs so that they open and close freely".
Give three reasons for maintaining farm tools.
Solution: Any three: they last longer; they work better with less effort; they are safer; money is saved; sprayers do not carry chemicals from one crop to the next or block.
Explain how wiping a hoe blade with oil prevents rust.
Solution: The thin layer of oil keeps air (oxygen) and water off the steel. Without both, the iron cannot oxidise to rust.
Describe how to sharpen a panga.
Solution: Fix the panga firmly (in a vice or against a block), hold the file at the original angle of the edge, and push the file along the edge in one direction, away from your body, until the edge is sharp on both sides as needed. Wear gloves.
Why should a knapsack sprayer never be rinsed out into a stream?
Solution: The leftover pesticide would poison fish and other water life and contaminate water that people and animals drink.
A wheelbarrow costs 60,000 Frw (illustrative). Neglected, it lasts 4 years; maintained, it lasts 10 years with 1,000 Frw of paint and oil per year. Find the yearly cost in each case.
Solution: Neglected: 60,000 ÷ 4 = 15,000 Frw per year. Maintained: 60,000 ÷ 10 = 6,000, plus 1,000 = 7,000 Frw per year.
Summary
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
