Sky Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 3(7), pp. 137 - 141, July, 2014 Available online http://www.skyjournals.org/SJAR ISSN 2315-8751 ©2014 Sky Journals Full Length Research Paper Contribution of manual energy to palm oil processing by smallholders in Nigeria Elijah I. Ohimain* and Sylvester C. Izah Bioenergy and Environmental Biotechnology Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Accepted 5 June, 2014 Energy is used in any production process in the form of heat, electrical, mechanical and human energy. Human energy is often overlooked in the computation of energy requirements of production activity. This study evaluated the contribution of manual energy to palm oil processing by smallholder processors in Nigeria using data obtained mainly from literature sources. The study found that 1.2709 MJ of manual energy is needed for the processing of one tonne of fresh fruit bunch. The results also showed that the contribution of manual energy is significantly lower than the contributions of energy from biomass and liquid fuel given in the literature. Of the total manual energy expended, women accounted for 32% and was restricted to two operations (sieving and nut and fiber separation) and the remaining 68% was input by men and involved five operations (bunch reception, bunch slicing, threshing, pressing and fiber repressing). Key words: Energy, manual labour, Nigeria, oil palm processing, smallholders. INTRODUCTION Energy is one of the essential resources needed by man for the survival of the economy (Jekanyinfa and Bamgboye, 2007). The use of energy in the various sectors of any nation’s economy cannot be over- emphasized. According to Bamgboye and Jekanyinfa (2007) energy resources generate foreign exchange reserves which the government uses for the various development programmes and which are crucial inputs for the growth and development of the economy. Insufficient amounts and inefficient use of energy in various production processes could lead to loss of gross domestic product which could affect the overall price of goods and services. Jekanyinfa (2006) stated that energy is one of the largest controllable costs in most establishments and, as such, it has major impacts on the profitability of most enterprises. This is especially so for sectors that use energy as a major input in their operations such as transportation and manufacturing industries. According to Fadare et al. (2009) efforts should be geared toward efficient energy utilization of *Corresponding author: E-mail:eohimain@yahoo.com. fuel, electricity, thermal and human energy to prevent collapse of the economy. In Nigeria, most manufacturing industries employ self-generating power plants that use fossil fuels such as gasoline (petrol) and diesel. This is due to the inadequate power supplies in the country which result in frequent power outages. In Nigeria, smallholder processors in the cassava and oil palm processing sector mostly use human energy. Human energy has contributed to several areas of processing in the country that is often un-reported. Most often, biomass and fossil fuel and/or electrical energy only are considered. However, thermal and/or electrical and manual energy requirements of processing industries have been reported in the cases of powdered and pelletised organic fertilizer production (Fadare et al., 2009), local alcohol production (Sunday et al., 2013), milling of rice (Goyal et al., 2012), and cassava processing (Ohimain, 2013), but literature concerning the contribution of human energy in palm oil processing is scarce. The stages of palm oil processing that require human energy include fruit bunch reception, bunch slicing, threshing, sieving, pressing, fiber separation, and fiber re-