African Union SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION A FRAMEWORK FOR AFRICA FAO_SAMA Report_Cover.indd 1 17/9/18 11:30 AM FAO_SAMA Report_Cover.indd 4 19/9/18 10:06 AM SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION A Framework for Africa Edited by: Patrick Kormawa Geoffrey Mrema Nomathemba Mhlanga Mark Kofi Fynn Josef Kienzle Joseph Mpagalile Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the African Union Commission Addis Ababa, 2018 FAO_SAMA Report_Contents and Intro.indd 1 17/9/18 11:27 AM Required citation Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed FAO & AUC. 2018. Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization: A Framework and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the work is for Africa. Addis Ababa. 127pp. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. 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The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user. Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative through [email protected]. Requests for commercial use Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: by-nc-sa/3.0/igo). [email protected]. PHOTO COVER: CREATIVE COMMONS CC BACK COVER: CREATIVE COMMONS CC FAO_SAMA Report_Contents and Intro.indd 1 17/9/18 11:27 AM Contents List of editors/contributors vi Foreword vii Preface x Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations and acronyms xii Executive summary xiv 1. Mechanization and agricultural development 1 1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 The context: global comparison of the levels of agricultural mechanization 6 1.3 Stagnation and decline in the level of agricultural mechanization in Africa 8 1.4 Renewed interest in agricultural mechanization in Africa 9 1.5 Action by the African Union 10 1.6 Methodology of the study 15 1.7 Validation Workshop 16 2. Evolution of agricultural mechanization in Africa 18 2.1 Agricultural mechanization during the colonial period 21 2.2 Agricultural mechanization after independence: 1960–1985 24 2.3 Agricultural mechanization after independence: 1985–2010 26 2.4 Agricultural mechanization after independence: from 2010 30 2.5 Lessons from past experience on agricultural mechanization in Africa 32 2.6 Philosophical vision 37 2.7 Conclusion 41 3. Key issues and constraints to sustainable agricultural mechanization in Africa 42 3.1 Farm power as the key input in agricultural mechanization 45 3.2 Hand-tool technology and human muscle power 46 3.3 Draft animal power and technologies 48 3.4 Mechanical power 50 3.5 Agricultural implements and sustainability 54 3.6 Importance of commercial farmers for the sustainability of mechanization 58 3.7 Types of crops 61 3.8 Mechanization across the value chain 63 3.9 Machinery utilization rates and timeliness of field operations 65 3.10 Franchises and supply chains for agricultural machinery and implements 67 3.11 Manufacturing of agricultural machinery and associated services 68 3.12 Sustainability issues: environmental, commercial and socio-economic 70 Environmental issues 70 Commercial issues 71 Socio-economic issues 71 3.13 Institutions and policy 72 iii FAO_SAMA Report_Contents and Intro.indd 3 17/9/18 11:27 AM Contents 3.14 Cross-cutting issues 73 Financing of agricultural mechanization inputs and services 73 Policy issues 74 Research and development 74 Advocacy 76 Capacity building 76 Knowledge sharing 77 3.15 Concluding remarks 78 4. Elements of a framework for SAMA 80 4.1 Ten elements of Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization in Africa (SAMA) 84 4.2 Making SAMA commercially sustainable: Elements 1–5 85 Element 1: Boosting farm power through appropriate technologies and innovative business models 85 Element 2: Promoting innovative financing mechanisms for agricultural mechanization 89 Element 3: Building sustainable systems for manufacture and distribution of agricultural mechanization inputs 90 Element 4: Sustainable mechanization across agrifood value chains 93 Element 5: Innovative systems for sustainable technology development and transfer 95 4.3 Making SAMA environmentally sustainable: Element 6 97 Element 6: Sustainable transformation of land preparation and crop/animal husbandry practices 97 4.4 Making SAMA socio-economically sustainable: Elements 7 and 8 99 Element 7: Socio-economic sustainability and the roles of: i) Smallholder farmers and their organizations; ii) Women and agricultural mechanization; iii) Youth and agricultural mechanization 99 Element 8: Human resources development and capacity building for SAMA 104 4.5 Overarching elements for SAMA: Elements 9 and 10 105 Element 9: Need for a long-term vision: policy and strategy issues 105 Element 10: Creating sustainable institutions for regional cooperation and networking 107 4.6 Formulation of strategies for SAMA at the country and regional levels 109 4.7 Conclusion 110 5. SAMA implementation mechanism: Agenda for action 112 5.1. Decisions by AU governance bodies on the draft framework for SAMA 116 5.2. Way forward 118 5.3. Conclusions 120 References 122 iv FAO_SAMA Report_Contents and Intro.indd 4 17/9/18 11:27 AM Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization: A framework for Africa Boxes Box 1. Basic definitions of selected mechanization terminology 3 Box 2. Stages in the process of agricultural mechanization 5 Box 3. Drudgery in agricultural tasks: hand-tool technology and human muscle power 47 Box 4. Leapfrogging the draft animal power stage 49 Box 5. Fertile ground for innovation and disruption 52 Box 6. Conservation agriculture (CA) 55 Box 7. Annual utilization rates and profitability of agricultural machinery use 88 Figures Figure 1. Agricultural mechanization value chain 4 Figure 2. Primary land preparation in Africa (2005) 6 Figure 3. Global tractors in use by region (1961–2000) 7 Figure 4. The SAMA Framework cycle 16 Figure 5. The four phases of Africa’s agricultural mechanization evolution 20 Figure 6. Tractors in use in Africa compared with other developing countries 25 Figure 7. Population in Africa 31 Figure 8. Number of tractors per 1 000 ha of land in different economic regions of Africa 34 Figure 9. Growth in tractor numbers used in agriculture in different countries (1950–1990) 35 Figure 10. Number of 4WTs in use in different RECs 37 Figure 11. Areas of different farm sizes in four countries (2015) 59 Figure 12. Land under cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa (million ha) 61 Figure 13. Main annual crops cultivated for food in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (2000) 62 Figure 14. Employment patterns: Changes in the share of total jobs among the working age population (15–64 years) (AASR, 2016) 63 Figure 15. Number of tractors per country – Sustainability and viability of agricultural machinery franchises 69 Figure 16. Estimated average tractor horsepower (hp) 79 Figure 17. The ten elements of SAMA 82 Figure 18. Cost of ploughing 1 ha (2014, USD) 88 Figure 19. Number of 4WTs imported during 2000–2007 in different RECs 92 Figure 20. Sample data of tractor age – United Republic of Tanzania 103 Tables Table 1. Cropland area under conservation agriculture (CA) in Africa (December 2017) 57 v FAO_SAMA Report_Contents and Intro.indd 5 17/9/18 11:27 AM FAO © PHOTOGRAPHY: PHOTOGRAPHY: LIST OF EDITORS/CONTRIBUTORS Patrick Kormawa Mark Kofi Fynn Subregional Coordinator for Southern