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A renewed focus on agriculture's potential contribution to economic transformation in Africa has resulted in increased attention paid to agricultural mechanization. African agriculture still relies predominantly on human muscle power despite anecdotal evidence on urbanization and rising rural wages, in contrast to other developing regions that have experienced rapid increases in agricultural mechanization during the past few decades. Past state-led mechanization pushes in Africa often failed due to insufficient understanding of the nature of demand for mechanization technologies among farmers and insufficient knowledge of private-sector functions. This background paper reviews the factors likely to influence farmer demand for mechanization in Africa and details different existing and potential mechanization supply models. Although an empirical analysis of mechanization demand and the effectiveness of supply chains is beyond the scope of this paper, in part due to data limitations, this paper suggests that demand for mechanization may be emerging in some parts of Africa. It also suggests that private-sector-driven supply models are better positioned to meet this demand than direct government involvement and certain types of subsidized programs. The paper then identifies possible areas for government support to complement private-sector leadership in developing mechanization supply chains. Nevertheless, significant further research is required to better understand the changing nature of mechanization demand in Africa and the extent and effectiveness of different supply models in meeting it. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; D Transforming Agriculture; D.3 Structural transformation, employment and rural urban linkages; CRP2 ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

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. ; PR ; IFPRI1; CRP2 ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Rice has become one of Nigeria's leading food staples. And rice consumption has outpaced production, making Nigeria the world's leading importer of rice. As a result, reducing import dependence is now a major goal of Nigerian policymakers.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 postharvest 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.The analysis, methods used, and recommendations provided in The Nigerian Rice Economy will be equally valuable to a broad range of readers including researchers, development specialists, students, and others concerned with applications of food policy analysis and economic development more broadly in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa south of the Sahara.Contributors: Akeem Ajibola, Xinshen Diao, Paul A. Dorosh, Oluyemisi Kuku-Shittu, Mehrab Malek, Bakare Samuel Oladele.

This chapter highlights the emerging areas of market failure associated with agricultural mechanization and how SSA governments, including the Ghanaian government, have adapted their strategies over the years in attempting to overcome these market failures. The chapter focuses more on Ghana, rather than SSA as a whole, while also discussing how Ghana's experiences are still relevant to other SSA countries. To retain clarity on the policy dynamics aspects, the chapter limits its focus to tractors in the crop subsector, as well as mechanization-specific policies, while leaving other types of mechanization technologies or subsectors, or other broader mechanization-sensitive interventions and policies, to future studies. ; PR ; IFPRI4; ReSAKSS; CRP2 ; AFR; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

IFPRI3; ISI; CRP2; Land Resource Management for Poverty Reduction ; EPTD; DSGD; PIM ; PR ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Small-scale private irrigation schemes (SPRI) have been the driving force behind the expansion of irrigated areas in Nigeria, despite government efforts to promote large-scale public irrigation schemes. SPRI allows adjustment of irrigation schedules in accordance with observed crop needs. The irrigated area in Nigeria is, however, far below its potential and an increase in farmers� investment in irrigation is essential. While Nigerian farmers� low level of investment in irrigation may be partly due to low returns, it is also the result of high transaction costs associated specifically with making such an investment. Although reducing transaction costs is important because the reduction provides farmers with a more enabling environment, transaction costs are often unobservable and little is known about what factors contribute to them. This article empirically assesses the effect of unobserved transaction costs for Nigerian farmers� when investing in irrigation pumps, using the baseline survey data for the Second Fadama Development Program (Fadama II). The results indicate that the unobserved transaction costs are higher for female landless farmers, with higher dependency ratio and residing far from town. The results suggest that the unobserved transaction costs can be as important as the factors determining the profitability of irrigation pump, emphasizing the importance of reducing transaction costs in addition to improving the environment for higher return from irrigation investment. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP32; NSSP ; DSGD

Africa has experienced a paradigm shift in mechanization in the past three decades. The "new paradigm" has also given rise to new challenges and policy issues. By synthesizing the recent experiences in African and Asian countries, this chapter draws lessons from Asia and Africa under this new African paradigm. In doing so, the chapter first lays out the guiding theoretical framework used in 1987 by Pingali, Bigot, and Binswanger (PBB), based on the literature on farming systems evolution and induced technological change. The chapter then describes the "new paradigm," which builds on PBB but also integrates the additional dimension of market failures associated, on the supply side, with custom hiring services, which have become the most common mode of mechanization among smallholders in developing countries. Applying this expanded framework, the chapter then reviews the Asian experience first. It highlights how mechanization has grown in the continent, having largely avoided supply-side market failures, thanks to several factors: smaller machine sizes;1 increased opportunities for multifunctional uses of machines; more secure land tenures that allow integration with formal credit markets; and the supportive, rather than distortive, nature of government subsidy policies. The chapter then turns to the experiences in Africa south of the Sahara ("Africa" hereafter) and highlights the emerging patterns of spatial variations in demand that are still largely consistent with the PBB framework. However, the chapter also stresses that market failures associated with custom hiring services on the supply side are substantial due to features unique to Africa, including the dominant types of large tractors, in addition to higher financial constraints on tractor ownership resulting from lack of secure land tenures and weak penetration of formal credit markets, as well as other barriers due to limited multifunctionality, lack of migratory services due to insufficient infrastructure and coordination failures, and insufficient technologies complementary to mechanization. Based on country experiences in Asia and Africa, the chapter also highlights key government policies that have not always been successful, including import restrictions (or removal thereof), inefficient technology and skill promotion, and insufficient provision of public goods. Last, given the country experiences and the identified appropriate roles of governments, the chapter concludes by describing the key lessons that are important for Africa's mechanization pathway forward, including (1) understanding the emerging nature of demand, (2) actively promoting private hiring services, (3) eliminating or reducing distortions, and (4) prioritizing the mechanization technologies appropriate for African contexts. ; PR ; IFPRI4; CRP2 ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Over the last several decades, India has seen a continuous spread of tractor use as well as growth in its domestic tractor manufacturing industry, despite relatively slow wage growth and a slow decline in the employment share of the agricultural sector. By now, arguably as much as 90 percent of the country's farm area may be prepared by tractors. India is now the largest tractor market in the world, purchasing more than 90 percent of the 660,000 tractors it produces per year. The annual value of tractors sold in India is more than US$5 billion per year. This study reviews the evolution of agricultural mechanization, particularly tractors, in India. In doing so, it provides some rough indicators of the extent of mechanization (particularly the spread of tractor use) at different historical phases, emphasizing that India's experiences up to 1990 are as important as the lessons since then. Substantial infrastructure endowments (in terms of roads, for example), which were already high in the 1960s, and investments into rural electrification, as well as knowledge accumulation through the importation of a large number of tractors early on, are likely to have helped the growth of domestic tractor manufacturing. Diverse custom hiring services for tractors and combine harvesters have emerged to serve areas that are profitable, with relatively little direct support from the government. The private sector has also stepped up to provide facilitating services to connect service providers and farmers. Empirical analyses of the impact of tractor ownership and tractor/combine harvester use confirms many hypotheses about the farm-level impact of mechanization in India. Despite the typically small landholding in India, tractor ownership is led by the motive to expand farm size. Tractors are more bullock saving than labor saving, whereas combine harvesters are more strongly labor saving. Combine harvesters are more yield enhancing than tractors, but land preparation by tractors may indirectly enhance yields through the increased use of chemical fertilizer. ; PR ; IFPRI4; CRP2 ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)