A 28-year-old lecturer of the Department of
Mechatronics and Systems Engineering at the
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi,
Faisal Sani Bala, has invented a complex yet
simple facility that would revolutionarise fish
farming in the country.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP Sunday in Bauchi,
during the19th-22nd convocation ceremony of
ATBU yesterday, where the facility was
displayed, Bala who is an alumnus of the
University of East London, where he studied
Electrical Electronic Engineering and
specialised in Embedded Systems, with bias
towards solving local problems in agriculture,
said he was motivated to come up with the
invention, which is his idea, because of the
challenges he faced with his personal
involvement in fish farming, and decided to
try it out when he competed in an
international innovation competition.
“I conceived the idea as a result the
challenges I faced as a fish farmer which
coincided with an advert I saw online by a
company in the US on innovation competition.
I applied and sent my proposal for the
competition. What I wanted to do was to
solve the problem I encountered on the farm.
“That was how it all started. I conceptualised
the solution and came up with a device that is
going to serve and ameliorate the problems
local farmers face in their operations. That
was in 2014 when I participated in the
competition in which I came 2nd,” he
narrated.
He further stated that in the course of coming
up with the first prototype, he faced huge
funding challenge and that apart from
personal funds; he relied on support from his
father which was inadequate. He added at a
time, he approached the government and
some private individuals for funding and also
wrote several proposals but none of them
pulled through successfully.
“The prototype you are seeing now was
funded by ATBU so this one belongs to the
school because it was produced for
convocation exhibition,” the lecturer said.
Bala further pointed out that device needs
constant research so that it can be further
improved, pointing out that it is highly viable
for commercialisation and “now that people
are more technology friendly, it is a very
simple system for people to use particularly
for graduates.”
He encouraged graduates to key into the
opportunity and be in involved in farming as
there is a lot to gain.
“Young people particularly graduates, can
really appreciate it as something they can
identify with because it is a technology-
friendly innovation and quite trendy. People
will be always be proud to farm as long as it
is this kind of hi-tech farming.
“Whenever you talk to people about farming,
their thinking is the village setting that doesn’t
augur well for them. But with this kind of
system you can farm anywhere and anytime.”
He urged upcoming inventors to look inwards
and not to be dazzled by external influence
and bear in mind that no one will come from
far away China, US or anywhere in the world
to solve our problems.
“We are the ones to solve our problems, so we
should look into the problems and come up
with solutions. We have to think outside the
box. The solution lies very close to us but if
you don’t seek it you will never get it,” he
emphasised.
LEADERSHIP Sunday reports that the device,
an automated fish farming facility, is designed
to help people, especially teeming unemployed
youth who are reluctant to venture into
farming the old fashioned way.
The fish farming facility which has an android
application to enable the monitoring of the
pond, using a cell phone, also comprises of
dedicated computers, tank, solar power
generation and complex water treatment
facilities among others, and is fit with
mechanism that would make it possible to
engage in fish farming all year round,
notwithstanding climatic changes.
It is also solar energy powered, automated
with less human involvement, environmentally
friendly, does not discharge dirty water and
has a very high stocking density compared to
the conventional system and also has the
capacity to accommodate large amount of fish
per meter cube of water.
According to him, “The system uses solar and
you can stock as many fish without any
hitches. The system is very clean, it is an
effective system and you stock more fish in
this farming system than any conventional
system. It can keep your fish the whole year
round. You don’t have to bother your
neighbours with discharging of water as the
water gets recycled and comes clean. It filters
the water continuously and it also looks at the
climate for oxygen and other necessary
parameters for the fish to thrive.”
Meanwhile, during the convocation ceremony,
President Muhammadu Buhari lamented the
low ranking of the country’s universities.
Represented by the Executive Secretary,
National Universities Commission (NUC), by
Prof. Julius Okojie, Buhari said it was
worrisome that no Nigerian university was
quoted among the top 100 universities in the
world.
“We rank below a thousand. If we do not
aspire to be among the world class
universities, we cannot boast of a robust
system capable of making the country among
the top economies of the world.
“We have abundance of talents who excel
elsewhere but appear incapacitated at home.
This is unacceptable. Whatever makes our
abundant talents fail at home and excel
abroad must be identified and neutralised for
our benefit and that of our future generation,’’
Buhari said. The president fingered incessant
strikes by teachers as one of the major
bottlenecks to the progress of the country’s
university system.
“The repercussions of strike usually retard the
smooth running of academic activities with
heavy negative consequences,” he said, and
called on the state governments to support
and encourage universities situated in their
states because they were responsible for
harnessing local talents and promotion of
local innovations.
Also, the university Chancellor, Oba Rufus
Adeyemo Adejugbe, urged the federal
government to expand the capacities of the
universities to accommodate more students.
The chancellor, who is also the Ewi of Ado
Ekiti, said “on our campuses, we have an
increasing growth in number of students but
every year, we admit less than the total
number of applicants who qualified. The
admission capacity for all our universities is
far below the quantum of youth passing their
entry examinations.
“Very few parents can afford to send their
children to private universities, hence the
abundant talents who find themselves unable
to attain university education. I therefore urge
stakeholders to urgently find both short and
long term solutions to this growing problem.”
Oba Adejugbe who is the new chancellor,
assured the federal and state government of
his determination to employ all apparatus in
discharging his responsibilities to the
university in order to achieve development in
the education sector.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Saminu
Ibrahim, in his address, disclosed that the
institution was graduating a total of 8,127
students, a breakdown of which shows 845
diploma, 5,577 first degrees, 1,620 PGD/
Masters and 85 Ph.Ds.
“Out of the 5,577 first degree graduants, 32
obtained first class.
1,203 got second class upper, 2,702 obtained
second class lower while 1,481 got third class
and 136 obtained pass,” he said.
Ibrahim said that the institution had recorded
a lot of achievements despite numerous
challenges, adding that already, a five-year
strategic plan for the university had been
produced to help chart a strategic direction for
the University.
“We are also improving the quality of our staff
to meet standard requirements. Within this
period, over 40 academic staff members have
been sent to acquire their PhD degrees across
the globe,” he added.


Source: www.leadership.ng/news/494639/invented-revolutionary-fish-farming-facility-lecturer-28

amazing!