Frédéric Baudron and colleagues

Rome, 13th January 2015

Opportunities for (appropriate)

mechanization in CA systems

Increasing labour shortages (rural-urban migration, HIV/AIDS, ageing population)

Declining number of draughtanimals (biomass shortage, drought, diseases)

High labour drudgery

Gender implications

Unattractive to the youth

Farm power: a major limiting factor to productivity in SSA?

Farm power: the forgotten

resource in SSA?

CA (No-Till) mainly adopted in South America, North America and Australia + New Zealand (47%, 38%, and 11% of cropland) (Derpschand Friedrich, 2009)

One of the major incentive: reduction in fuel and machinery costs (Kassam et al., 2009)

Major incentive in the less mechanized systems in developing countries: early planting (arising from the reduced number of operations required to prepare the land) (Haggbladeand Tembo, 2003)

Primary purpose of CA: establishing a crop with as little energy (= power × time) as possible

CA: first and foremost an

energy-saving technology

CA & Small Mech: Synergies

Soil inversion is the most power intensive operation.

Its suppression makes the use of lower powered, more

affordable and easier to maintain tractors possible.

CA with a Two-Wheel Tractor:

options commercially available

Strip tillage Direct-seeding: 2 rows Direct-seeding: 1 row

Dramatic reduction in the time

needed to establish a crop…

0

20

40

60

80

100

Conv land

prep +

planting

Conv

planting

Danyang

2BFG

VMP National

ZT

Fitarelli 2R Fitarelli 1R Morrisson

seeder

Tim

e (

ho

ur

ha

-1)

(Data from Hawassa, Ethiopia)

Low fuel consumption

5 to 10 L ha-1

Yield advantage for small grain

But not true ‘best bet’ for SSA

Biophysical specificities

Dry, hard, stony fields

Uneven fields

Weed load

Socioeconomic specificities

Distance between fields

Diversity of crops

Resource constraints

Locally-made tool-bar-based

seeder

Small mech = Appropriate mech

in most of SSA

Minimum negative social impact

No need for land consolidation (2/3 of African farms smaller than 2 ha; Alteri, 2009)

Equitable access (low capital needed for the purchase, operation and maintenance)

No displacement of labour (mechanization of the most power-intensive operations only)

Minimimum negative environmental impacts

Soil degradation (lower footprint, minimum tillage as a must in rainfed conditions)

Biodiversity (maintenance of heterogeneity at plot – e.g. trees – and landscape levels)

Small mech = Appropriate mech

in most of SSA

Commercializing small mech to

resource-constrained farmers

Private rural service providers

Only few farmers will be able to purchase machines individually

Not profitable for farmers to own machines unless they provide services

Multi-purpose uses (to maximize mechanization use rates)

Linking input BM to output BM (cash flow)

Bundling of services and products (to reduce the cost of mechanization services)

Possible need of a broker (weak markets, vulnerable farmers)

Multipurpose use of 2WTs

High demand for mechanization, even at low labour wage for:

Transport

Power-intensive operations that require little human control (e.g. shelling)

Power-intensive operations that are unprofitable when unmechanized (e.g. water pumping)

Entry points?

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Pro

po

rtio

n o

f to

tal

an

nu

al

lab

ur

in

Meru

Months

< 150 mandays

150-250 mandays

> 250 mandays

WeedingSowing

HarvestingTransporting

Beyond crop establishment…

Several models…

Several models…

1. Group owner/ operator model (KEN, TAN)

2. Group owner/ individual operator model (TAN)

3. Individual owner/ operator model – local market, part time SP (farmer to farmer) (ETH, KEN)

4. Individual owner/ operator model – wider market, full time SP (ETH)

5. Contract farming – corporate owner/ operator model (ZIM)

6. Dealer-led vertically integrated model (KEN, ZIM)

7. Dealer-led collaborative model (ETH)

8. Manufacturer-led vertically integrated model (TAN)

9. Manufacturer-led collaborative model (TAN)

Why should it work this time?

Demand for mechanized services has increased (intensification, commercial orientation)

Supporting infrastructure (e.g. access to finance, repair services, replacement parts, fuel and

lubricants) has developed

Past public sector focus (inefficient and uneconomic government-run tractor hire schemes)

Steps

1. Identifying tasks to be mechanized (low labor productivity and/or high labor drudgery, likely demand)

2. Identifying/manufacturing suitable machines

3. Creating demand (incentives for commercial actors)

4. Building capacity and skills for mechanization and business (machines owned by farmers at an early stage, entrepreneurs specialized in hiring services later)

5. Linking to finance

Thank you!