Demand for mechanization in Nigeria is growing in a fairly consistent way predicted by economic theories. The farming system has intensified and the use of animal traction has grown at a substantial rate. Demand side factors considerably explain the low adoptions of tractors in Nigeria. Where demand is sufficient for tractors, the private sector has emerged over time as a more efficient provider of hiring services (particularly farmer-tofarmer services) than the public sector. Conditions are consistent with the hypotheses that, because of generally low support for the agricultural sector in Nigeria in the past few decades, agricultural mechanization (tractor use in particular) has remained low despite the declining share of the workforce engaged in the agricultural sector. Agricultural transformation in the form of a declining agricultural labor force has happened partly through the growth in the oil industry since the 1970s. Instead of inducing further exit from farming, tractor adoptions in Nigeria might have helped those who have remained in farming to start expanding their production scale. A knowledge gap, however, still remains regarding the dominance of large tractors and the potential effects of tractor adoptions on smallholders who have yet to adopt them.

Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

This framework presents ten interrelated principles/elements to guide Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization in Africa (SAMA). Further, it presents the technical issues to be considered under SAMA and the options to be analysed at the country and sub regional levels. The ten key elements required in a framework for SAMA are as follows: The analysis in the framework calls for a specific approach, involving learning from other parts of the world where significant transformation of the agricultural mechanization sector has already occurred within a three-to-four decade time frame, and developing policies and programmes to realize Africa’s aspirations of Zero Hunger by 2025. This approach entails the identification and prioritization of relevant and interrelated elements to help countries develop strategies and practical development plans that create synergies in line with their agricultural transformation plans. Given the unique characteristics of each country and the diverse needs of Africa due to the ecological heterogeneity and the wide range of farm sizes, the framework avoids being prescriptive.

This study was conducted to understand the evolution of agricultural mechanization in Nepal, specifically its determinants on both the demand and supply sides, as well as impacts on agricultural production and associations with broader economic transformation processes, in order to draw lessons that can be conveyed to other less mechanized countries. Mechanization levels in Nepal, a largely agricultural country, were relatively low until a few decades ago. However, significant mechanization growth, including the adoption of tractors, has occurred since the 1990s, against a backdrop of rising rural wages, particularly for plowing, combined with growing emigration and growth in key staple crop yields and overall broad agricultural production growth, as well as improved market access and participation. This growth in mechanization has taken place despite the general absence of direct government support or promotion. The growth of tractor use in the plains of the Terai zone has transformed agricultural production rather than inducing labor movement out of agriculture, raising overall returns to scale in intensification and enabling the cultivation of greater areas by medium smallholders than by resource-poor smallholders. Tractors have also facilitated the intensification of crop production per unit of land among very small farmers, enabling mechanization growth despite the continued decline in farm size, although these farmers may not have benefited as much as medium smallholders. Potential future research areas with policy relevance include mitigating accessibility constraints to tractor custom hiring services, identifying appropriate regulatory policies for mechanization, and providing complementary support to some smallholders who may not fully benefit from tractor adoption alone.

Agricultural mechanization has often been characterized by scale-effects and increased specialization. Such characterizations, however, fail to explain how mechanization may grow in Africa where production environments are more heterogeneous and diversification of production may help in mitigating risks from increasingly uncertain climatic conditions. Using panel data from farm households and crop-specific production costs in Nigeria, we estimate how the adoption of animal traction or tractors affects the economies of scope (EOS) between rice, non-rice grains, legume/seed crops, and other crops, which are the crop groups that are most widely grown with animal traction or tractors in Nigeria. The results indicate that the adoption of these mechanization technologies is associated with lower EOS between non-rice grains, legume/seed crops, and other crops, but greater EOS between rice and other crops. An increase in EOS for rice is indicated in both primal and dual analytical approaches. Mechanical technologies may raise EOS between crops that are grown in more heterogeneous environments, even though it may lower EOS between crops that are grown in relatively similar environments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows the effects of mechanical technologies on EOS in agriculture in developing countries.

The manual work carried out by farmers and their families is often both arduous and time consuming and in many countries this is a major constraint to increasing agricultural production. Such day-to-day drudgery is a major contributoring factor in the migration of people, particularly the young, from the rural countryside to seek the prospect of a better life in the towns and cities. Farm production can be substantially increased through the use of mechanical technologies which both are labor-saving and directly increase yields and production. This document provides guidelines on the development and formulation of an agricultural mechanization strategy and forms part of FAO's approach on sustainable production intensification.

This publication gives a wide-ranging perspective on the present state of mechanization in the developing world, and, as such, constitutes a solid platform on which to build strategies for a sustainable future. Farm mechanization forms an integral plank in the implementation of sustainable crop production intensification methodologies and sustainable intensification necessarily means that the protection of natural resources and the production of ecosystem services go hand-in-hand with intensified production practices. This requires specific mechanization measures to allow crops to be established with minimum soil disturbance, to allow the soil to be protected under organic cover for as long as possible, and to establish crop rotations and associations to feed the soil and to exploit crop nutrients from various soil horizons. This work is the starting point to help the reader understand the complexities and requirements of the task ahead.

In The Nigerian Rice Economy the authors assess three options for reducing this dependency - tariffs and other trade policies; increasing domestic rice production; and improving post-harvest rice processing and marketing - and identify improved production and post-harvest activities as the most promising. These options however, will require substantially increased public investments in a variety of areas, including research and development, basic infrastructure (for example, irrigation, feeder roads, and electricity), and rice milling technologies.

Cover Crops in West Africa Contributing to Sustainable Agriculture

Many previous publications on farm mechanization, draught animal power, hand tool technology, etc. have tended to be narrowly focused. The topic of farm power and mechanization also tended to be separated from the actual process of growing crops. This manual looks at putting the different sources of farm power, mechanization, machines, equipment and tools in a much broader context. Farm power requirements need to be viewed with reference to rural livelihoods and to farming systems as well as to the critical area of labour saving in HIV/AIDS-hit populations. No one particular type of technology is advocated.