IMO STATE UNIVERSITY

GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

FIELD TRIP REPORT ON ISHIAGU COMMUNITY IN EBONYI STATE

BY

UGORJI NJIDEKA AGNES

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DEGREE
IN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

SUPERVISORS:E C.EZEDIKE AND DR.STAN OBGUJI

NOVEMBER 2021
DEDICATION

THE REPORT IS DEDICATED TO GOD ALMIGHTY FOR WISDOM TO CARRY IT OUT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am over helmed in all humbleness and gratefulness to acknowledge my depth to all those who have
helped me to put these ideas, well above the level of simplicity and into something concrete.

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my leturers which Any attempt at any level can
‘t be satisfactorily completed without their support and guidance

I would like to thank my coursemate who helped me a lot in gathering different information, collecting
data and guiding me from time to time in making this project, despite of their busy schedules, they gave
me different ideas in making this project unique.

TABLE OF CONTENT
DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

CHAPTER ONE

FIELD TRIP DEFINITION

ADVANTAGE OF FIELD TRIP

DISADVANTAGE OF FIELD TRIP

EFFECTIVE USE OF FIELD TRIP

CHAPTER TWO

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER THREE

STATION ONE

STATION TWO

STATION THREE

STATION FOUR

STATION FIVE

STATION SIX

STATION SEVEN

CONCLUSION
 CHAPTER ONE

FIELD TRIP DEFINITION

A field trip, which may also be termed as an instructional trip, school excursion, or school journey, is
defined to be a school or class trip with an educational intent, in which students interact with the
setting, displays, and exhibits to gain an experiential connection to the ideas, concepts, and subject
matter. Better still field trips is described as student experiences outside of the classroom at interactive
locations designed for educational purposes.

Field trips are usually planned for five purposes:

1) To provide firsthand experience,

2) To stimulate interest and motivation in science,

3) To add relevance to learning and interrelationships,

4) To strengthen observation and perception skills, and

5) To promote personal (social) development.

THE ADVANTAGE OF FIELD TRIP

1. field trip has modern teaching principles that utilizing the real environment in teaching

2. it make the lessons in school more relevant to the the reality and the needs of the community

3. it stimulate the creativity of students

4. the information used in teaching is more wider and actual.

5. the students can observe the diverse of realities closer

6. the students can get to experienced by trying to participate in an activity

7. the students can address some issues or statements by see, hear, try and prove them directly

8. the students can obtain the information by organizing interviews or listen to lectures given during
activities learning

9. the students can learn something intensively and comprehensively

THE DISADVANTAGE OF FIELD TRIP

1. the necessary facilities and the cost of used are hard to provided by the student or the school
2. it requires preparation or planning

3. requires coordination with the lecturer in order to avoid overlap time for a field trip activities

4. the recreational element often become more of priority rather than being an element of studies

5. difficult to manage a lot of students in the course.

6. requires preparation by many parties

7. it will disturb the implementation of learning in school

8. sometimes there is difficulty in transporting

9. if the places visited was difficult to be observed, resulting in students become confused and will not
achieve the expected goals

10. requires proper supervision

11. requires a relatively high cost.

EFFECTIVE USE OF FIELD TRIP

There are three ways needed to make the field trip effective, they are:

1. PRE-TRIP STAGE

The pre-trip stage of a field trip involves two major components: preparation and planning. Preparation
is the action or process of getting ready for the field trip. In preparing a field trip, the students need to
set a clear goals, consider the destination with the budget, make division of task about who would be in
charge of the financial, documentation, destination etc. The field trip should have obtained the data
about the object such as the location, road access, lodging, meals, transportation budget and ticket. The
result of the preparation will be discussed by the students and the lecturer in order to organize the
activities required to achieve a desired goal. The planning are include booking flight, searching a place to
stay during field trip, consider the tourism object that will be visited, discuss what are the necessary
things that the students should bring, make the itinerary of the destinations, limit the budget and etc.

2. TRIP STAGE

Refers to the carrying out a plan where the students are doing the field trip. The students can
implement what they have planned in the itinerary while the lecturer will accompany to supervise the
students to keep the trip as smooth as the possible and up to destination.
3. POST-TRIP STAGE

The third and final stage of a successful field trip is the post trip stage. Reporting is one of activities in
the form of submission of progress or result of activity on all matters relating to this field trip. Once
completed the field trip, the students will be asked to make a report regarding what they have seen,
experienced, and learned during the field trip. The result of field trip will be discussed in front of the
class with the other students to learn about the field trip.
 CHAPTER TWO

INTRODUCTION

On the 24th of November 2021,we the students of geography and environmental management,three
hundred level in Imo state university set out for a field trip observation to Cino Chino Investment
Quarry,Ishiagu in Ebonyi state to consummate the GEM 313 which is a continusion of GEM 214 course.

At exactly 8:15 three hundred level students of GEM were all seated in one of the school vehicle set to
level for the trip with professor C.E.Ezedike and Dr.Stan Ogbuji as the field leaders,prayer was said
commiting our last ves and the journey into God's hands seeking for protection to and fro for the
journey by Vivian Oluebube Ezubelu. We processed from the school permisses to Bishop's court to orji
flyover,and head to orji community and stopped at nkwo orji market where we stopped to get fuel and
satch water for the trip,after some few minutes we arrived at Akabor,then Atta,Amanaku,passed
through Unudo in Isalla Mbano then through Anara,got to the famous Anara roundabout,soon after we
attained Eziama Osuroa Mbano where we saw the famous Eziama natural lake/swamp which was on the
left hand side of the road while going and the right hand side of the road while returning,the
lake/swamp was brown in colour which is very unhealthy for human consumption or use.

Over time we reached Umuolobu,then Onuimo,Okwelle,Umuagwo and then to Umueze which was
abundantly blessed with palm fruit tress on both sides go of the road down to Umueleke
community,from Umueleke to Umuudo there was very few settlements found by the road side,soon we
got to Umuna Okigwe in Onuimo,where we passed through their market which was very busy with the
activities of buying and selling.

We soon got to Imo state university of science and technology site which has been well built with well
place buildings yet was abandoned by the school management and the state government,which to my
best knowledge is a total waste of money and land which should have been put to good use by the
school management,no sooner we arrived at the famous and popular Imo river,which is popularly
known as Onuimo because it's the source of the river which ran into various parts of her neighbouring
states and it has it's mouth directly into the Atlantic ocean,the Imo river covers 150ml(240km).

At 10:45 we attained Okigwe town ,got to the round about which was linked to Rivers state,Abia
state,Enugu state,not so far from the Okigwe around about we saw the Okigwe cargo tripper site,soon
we reached the last settlement in Imo state while going to Enugu which is Ihebu Okigwe,where we also
saw the centralco quarry.

At the boundary between Imo state and Abia state we found abundant cashew tress planted on both
sides of the express road and covered a good amount of land and from that point the view ahead was
amazing with a very solid huge hill,which we later learned came all the way from Benue star into Nsukka
then Enugu and ran into Abia state too,one could see house built on the hill with different types of
plants from afar,with a good express road which lead to Isuoku.
CHAPTER THREE

STATION ONE
At 11:03 we got the the fist station of our field trip which is known as Leru town,our vehicle parked at
the left side of the road,then instructed by the field leaders to observe the area,it was noticed that the
settlement of these area is a nucleated settlements because of the hilly geographical patterns of the
area,on the hilly part we found houses,palm tress,breed fruit tress, mahogany tress, cocoyam, three leaf
yam, cassava and some plantains,we observed that the land use in Leru community is mainly
commercial, transport, industry, residential and agricultural land use,the major problem of Leru people
is water due to the hilly nature of the place it is very difficult to get water,and the hilly nature makes it
difficult to drill borehole in this area,another problem faced by the Leru people is lack of electricity cause
if the lack of population that will generate money for the power holding company, insecurities is another
challenges of the people of Leru. We were taught that Leru community is the highest point above water
level with 776km above sea level.

STATION TWO

Station two was located 1km from the Leru bridge,where we found a Cuesta mainly called Okigwe
Cuesta on the left hand side of the road and on the right we could still see the hill,the Cuesta land form
is very flat and straight which extended to Afiokpo and then to Cross Rivers State,the settlement of the
area is despised with tress and gardens demarcated them.
 STATION THREE

The third station of our field trip is know as Indawa Lokpaukwu,which is the last community in Abia state
while heading to Enugu state ,it was created sixteen years ago by the then governor of Abia state in the
bid to maintain peace between the people of Abia state and the cattle rearers and also economic
income which was gotten from the cattle rearers,the settlement can be said to be a rural linear
settlement which started from the Lokpaukwu checking point with a long running pavement which helps
to regulate law and order in the area by the government.This settlement is known to have a mix
population with different tribe and culture,most of the houses found in this area are poorly constructed
with the mind sets of the people leaving at any given time,it is observed that onthe right hand side of
the settlements there was no house beyond 100 meters and on the left hand side which I s hilly there
was no house found beyond 200 meters from the road,this settlement is slowly but gradually moving
into modernization.

The main economic activities observed here we're cattle rearing and selling,palm oil sells and the
activities going on here has affected the land use by transportation, commercials, residential. Problems
faced here by most people is insecurities,with the lack of a bank present there people trend to fear for
their money,water is another problem faced by the dweller of Lokpaukwu,parking lots for the trucks and
lastly electricity.

To my own observation I can say that the settlements is rural but with time it will develop into an urban
settlement with the growth of economic activities going on there will attract more people into the
community.

STATION FOUR

We arrived at Ishiagu in Enugu state around 12:19,we were asked to alighted the vehicle and move to a
rice field to study it.There we observed the main type of agriculture which dominated the area which is
mainly rice,which are usually planted on a very large hecters of land. Two types of rice are usually
planted here cause there are two different types of farm land found around this area,which are swampy
and dry,the types of rice planted here are paddy or padi rice which are planted in a swampy or water
logged areas and upland rice which are planted on dry soil.

We were taught how the rice are being harvested,by cutting them when they are due for harvest and
separating them from the husks,after that it is cooked half way then sun dried and then sent to the rice
mill for proper cleaning,the husks are used as animal feed but in Ishiagu most rice farms dispose the
husks by burning.it is by tradition that the women of Ishiagu plant rice, cassava,cocoyam,while men
plant yam,so we found a lot of women in the rice field,some weeding,some harvesting,and some
beating the rice in order to dehusks it.

STAGES TO CLEAN RICE

PARBOILING First the Paddy is soaked in warm water 70C for 8hrs or more. Then the water is drained
and paddy is cooked or steamed for 45 minutes to 1 hour. By this time the shell of the rice begins to
open and the content can be seen. Most people in Ishiagu use drums and firewood to carry out this
process. There are more modern equipment for doing with firewood or electricity.

DRYING After the parboiling process , the paddy is dried in the sun or with a drying equipment for
8hours or more to reduce the moisture content to 14% or %13, which is accurate for the milling.

MILLING This is the process that transforms the paddy into the white rice that we eat. In some cases, the
paddy is cleaned and destoned, using precleaners and Destoning Equipment. Then the paddy goes to
the Huller which removes the Shell. Then brown rice is gotten at this state. The brown rice is then
moved to the milling or polishing section where the brown back or bran is removed to get the white
surface .

STATION FIVE

The fifth station which was supposed to be a brief stopover at the NRC Granite Quarry Ishiagu,which was
the first quarry to be drilled in 1920 while the building of the east railway line was in progress but was
not observed due to security reason.

STATION SIX

Station six which is the brief stopover at a rice mill in Ishiagu to know how the rice are been clean and
dehusked and packed,we were showed various machines used in rice mills like.

SEED CLEANERS AND DESTONERS

Seed Cleaning, Destoning is one of the processes involved in Rice milling and preparation of other grains
for consumption. One of the setbacks and challengers facing local rice production and other grains in
Nigeria is the amount of stones and other impurities present in the grains. Some Nigerians prefer
foreign processed grains to local rice and grains processed locally. This is because of the stones and
other impurities found in them after they have been cooked and during consumption.These
Destoners/Destoning machines, are built with different modern technology principles. These include the
suction Type Rice Destoners, Gravity type separators.

RICE HULLER AND MILLING MACHINES

After the rice has been harvested , the paddy is cleaned and ready to be moved to the mill. The rice
huller is the Agro Equipment used to remove the chaff or husk from the rice seed. The raw rice or paddy
must go through this process of hulling or dehusking before its ready for consumption.

Rice hullers, milling machines are of different capacities, from 400kg per hour to 5tons per hour. They
come in different sizes which are suitable for small, medium and large rice mills in Nigeria. Some of
these equipment are semi-automatic while others are fully automatic . Some also combine the function
of hulling, milling, polishing , destoning in one machine .

RICE GRADER
In the process of transforming paddy (Raw Rice) to the consumable white or brown rice, there are
breakages . depending on the equipment used in the process, the amount of rice broken in smaller
pieces will differ. But no matter the equipment used, broken rice is a normal occurrence in rice milling
process.

These graders ensure that the rice broken during the milling process, are separated through the sieve,
and brings out full grains through the outlet.

RICE POLISHER

Polishing is part of the rice milling process. Sometimes the appearance of the rice is not as bright as
expected after hulling. For this reason there is need to polish the rice to appear as bright as
desired .Though some milling equipment combine the function of milling and polishing, rice milling
machines are made just for polisher with better appearance .

BAG CLOSER

The old method of sewing polypropylene woven sacks with needle and thread can no longer meet the
production demand of packaged rice. To be able to sew more rice bags with minimum time , the need
for portable hand held sewing machines arose. These machines are known as bag closers .

DIGITAL WEIGHING SCALE

In packaging of food items such as rice, maize, wheat and other grains, uniformity in size is of utmost
importance. These grains normally come in sacks of 5,10,15,25 and 50Kg, without accurate weighing
system, the container might have 50kg written on it, but the content will be less.

BUCKET ELEVATORS

Moving of grains into processing equipment manually is a very tedious task. Not only does it delay the
amount of grains that can be processed at a time, but also consumes a lot of physical energy . this is the
reason why Bucket Elevators/Conveyors are needed in Rice mills and food processing plants.

STATION SEVEN

At 12:45 we got to the quarry,we first got to crushed rock industry which was the supposed to be the
site of the field trip but was changed due to a dispute between the community and the industry,we then
headed to Cino Chino Investment Quarry where we all alighted the vehicle and guided by Mr Abel
Nwafor who took us round the quarry and into the pit where the rocks are mapped out to be broken
down into granite,we were show how the rock are broken,and machines used in quarries.

CHAPTER FOUR

DEFINITION OF QUARRY
A quarry is a site where a stone or gravel producer extracts a variety of raw materials from the earth.
Common types of material extracted in quarrying activities include limestone, granite and sand. The
equipment and machinery used in quarrying are large, powerful and productive.

IMPORTANCE OF QUARRY

The materials produces by quarrying are essential to our everyday lives, providing the construction
materials to build roads and buildings, delivering vital minerals to agriculture and supporting the
generation of electricity – to name just a few uses.

FACTORS CONSIDERED WHILE DECIDING THE LOCATION OF A QUARRY SITE

Availability of sufficient quantity of desired quality stones.

It should have proper transport facilities.

Cheap local labor.

Problems associated with rainwater drainage.

Location of permanent structures in the locality and site to forbid dumping.

QUARRYING OF STONE

The process of raking out stones from natural rock beds is known as quarrying, the term quarry is used
to indicate the exposed surface of natural rocks, the difference between a mine and a quarry should be
noted.

In the case of a mine, the operations are carried out under the ground at great depth whereas, in the
case of the quarry the operations are carried out at ground level in an exposed condition.

ADVANTAGES OF QUARRYING

Quarrying creates jobs in areas where there are limited opportunities.

Quarrying provides income to local councils through taxation.

Good communications are needed for transporting the products of quarrying. As a result many remote
rural areas benefit from improved access.

DISADVANTAGES OF QUARRYING

A landfill site in Essex

Wildlife habitats are destroyed.

Valuable agricultural land is taken away.

Quarrying creates pollution from noise and dust.

Heavy traffic causes pollution and congestion on narrow country roads. The vibrations from heavy traffic
can cause damage to buildings.

Quarries create visual pollution and tourists may be deterred by the scars on the landscape.

Landfill sites and waste tips need to be monitored to check for a build up of gases, such as methane.

Limestone is a non-renewable resource - so it can be argued that quarrying is unsustainable.

EQUIPMENTS USED IN QUARRY

Stripping & Drilling Equipment

The first process of opening a quarry is to remove the material between the surface and the minerals or
materials that you want to extract. This is done by either surface stripping or by blasting with explosives.
Surface stripping is primarily done with crawler tractors, which are large-scale bulldozers. These massive
machines are able to move large amounts of dirt with their front-mounted blades and rip through rock
with their rear-mounted ripper arms. Blasting is first initiated by drilling holes into the earth with
specialized auger bits mounted on a mobile platform. After the holes are drilled, explosives with a
primer booster are packed into the holes. When the primer boosters are detonated, large portions of
earth are moved.

Wheel Loaders

Wheel loaders are machines equipped with a hydraulic arm and bucket that are used to load dirt that is
moved by crawler tractors or blasting technicians. These massive loaders have a bucket capacity of up to
35 tons of material. They are also used for loading mined product into rock trucks, which transport the
product for processing. Smaller loaders are available for smaller-scale quarrying operations and for
loading trucks delivering material to its end destination.

Off-Highway Trucks

Off-highway trucks, also known as rock trucks, are massive trucks that are used to haul both overburden
(dirt that is moved to reach the material to be extracted) and extracted material. These trucks, which
utilize up to 3,500 horsepower engines and possess as much as 3600-ton hauling capacity, can transport
extraordinary amount of material in a relatively short period of time. These vehicles are an important
part of increasing the productivity of the quarrying operation.

Crushing Equipment

Crushers are used to process large rocks into smaller stones. These powerful pieces of equipment use an
elaborate system of jaws, vibrators and fixed steel plates to crush material transferred from the quarry
in rock trucks into the finished product. These crushers can be adjusted to produce differing sizes of
stone and gravel, depending upon the operation's production requirements. After the stone has been
crushed, smaller-scale wheel loaders, often called yard loaders, move the crushed stone into stockpiles
of similarly sized products, where it is loaded into customer trucks for end use.

METHODS OF QUARRYING OF STONE:

1.Wedging:

2.Heating:

3.Wedging:

4.Blasting:

TOOLS FOR QUARRYING OF STONE

(1) Dipper:

(2) Jumper:

(3) Priming needle:

(4) Scrapping Spoon:

(5) Tamping Bar:

METHODS OF QUARRYING OF STONE:

1.WEDGING

This quarrying method is appropriate for costly, soft and stratified rocks such as sandstone, limestone,
laterite, marble and slate.

Holes about 10–15 cm deep, at a distance of about 10 cm are made perpendicular to the rock.Steel pins
and wedges or plugs (conical wedges) and feathers are inserted into them, these plugs are then hit
together with a sledge hammer.

2.HEATING:

Heating is best suited for heating small, thin and regular blocks of stones from rocks such as granite and
gneiss.

In a small area, the pile of fuel is piled on the rock surface and fired.

Two consecutive layers of rock break apart due to uneven expansion of the two layers, the loose rock
part is broken into pieces of the desired shape and removed with the help of pick-axes and crow-
bars.The obtained stone blocks are very appropriate for rough particles, while the intermediate layers
should be separated from the highest and backside layers.In such a case, the intermediate layer is
electrically heated and the expansion separates from the other two layers.
A quarrying of stone has a rough surface that is prepared to obtain a fixed and regular shape.The
dressing of the stones is finished immediately after the quarry and before the season to acquire much
less weight for transport.

3.WEDGING:

If the rock surface contains cracks of fissures then wedging technique is adopted.Metal wedges or points
are pushed by means of such cracks via a hammer, blocks of stones are then shifted, and eliminated
with the help of suitable devices.

If natural cracks are usually not available, artificial cracks are formed, this method is adopted for rocks
which might be comparatively smooth.

4.BLASTING:

In this method, the explosive is adopted of quarrying to transform rocks into small pieces used when
hand rocks having no fissures or cracks are to be damaged down into small pieces.Stone obtained by
blasting is normally small in size, and they are used as ballast in railway, aggregate for concrete road
metal, etc.

The following instruments are required within the process of blasting like a dipper, jumper, priming
needle, scraping spoon, and tamping bar.

TOOLS FOR QUARRYING OF STONE:

The following tools are required within the blasting process as follows:

(1) Dipper:

It is used to drill a gap to the required depth.

(2) Jumper:

It is used to make blast holes, more effective in boring vertical holes round.

(3) Priming needle:

It is used for retaining holes when the tamping is being tapped as a skinny copper rod pointed at one
end and a loop is provided on the other end for handling.

After the hole has been filled with explosives, it is filled with tempered earth and this needle is placed in
the center so that a path is developed for the insertion of the fuse due to explosion by its removal or
extraction.

(4) Scrapping Spoon:

It is used to remove the crushed stone dust from blast holes.

Within the type of an iron rod with a round plate attached at one end and a loop is provided on the
different end to facilitate its handling.

(5) Tamping Bar:

Tamping Bar is used to ramp or tamp the material while refilling blast holes.

It is in the form of a heavy brass rod of 10 mm to 15 mm diameter and it tapers slightly at the ends.

CONCLUSION

Field Trip should be a must way of learning for every school, Field Trip is one of the best way a student
could learn,it gives the students a one-on-one experience and also gives the students more better
understanding of this topic.

Due to the embarking of this field trip I have learnt so many things which I will never have learnt in class
or would have fully understood, I have no gained the knowledge of how rice are been planted, cared for,
haversted,cleaned and produced into the market.

I have also learnt how quarries breaks down rocks and turns them into gravel which are in turn used for
construction of buildings and roads, without embarking on this field trip I probably won't have learnt all
these things which I know now all thanks to the field trip, I had gained a face-to-face experience of how
rices are being cleaned ,of how they are being planted and how they have been harvested and also had
a one-on-one experience of how cunks of huge rocks are been broken down into gravels and the
reasons why a place is picked for a quarrel. In the bid of this field trip I also learnt to communicate with
some of my coursemate which I hardly had the opportunity to communicate with,it helps to build the
relationship between students and we shared different ideas of experiences which we had on this Field
Trip.