Why are small agricultural machines not used in Mozambique?
Why are small agricultural machines
used in Asia and Tanzania
but not Mozambique?
*The past 50 years witnessed a remarkable spread of smaller-scale rural mechanization in some regions of South Asia, mostly characterized by the spread of single-cylinder diesel engines. These engines have been used for multiple purposes, such as providing power for shallow tubewell pumps, riverboats, two-wheel tractors, road and track transport vehicles, harvesters, threshers, grain mills, timber mills, and processing equipment", note Stephen Biggs and Scott Justice in a new paper "Rural and Agricultural Mechanization - A History of the Spread of Small Engines in Selected Asian Countries". Bangladesh, for example, has 500,000 two-wheel tractors in use, and Thailand nearly 3 million. (International Food Policy Research Institute, Discussion Paper 01443)
Tanzania has seen a rapid increase in the import of two wheel tractors (also called power tillers) from less than 100 in 2000 to more than 5000 in 2012 (60% from China and 25% from Thailand), according to a recent PhD thesis by Andrew Agyei-Holmes ("Tilling the Soil in Tanzania: What Do Emerging Economies Have to Offer?" Open University 2014) and a more recent paper "Walking the Tight Rope of Tillage Technology Choice" http://www.globelicsacademy.net/2013_pdf/Full papers/Agyei-Holmes full paper.pdf
A power tiller can plough about 1 hectare per day, and they are broadly profitable. Agyei-Holmes found that small tractors have some limitations; for example, they are hard to use for dry ploughing before the rains.
Biggs and Justice note that "In Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, [two wheel tractors] are owned by people who may have some land, but generally their services are hired out to others for multiple purposes," including transport because they can be used to pull a trailer. Agyei-Holmes reported the same thing, and also noted that farmers made a profit hiring out power tiller services, whereas hiring out larger tractors was not profitable. He finds for Tanzania "Small machines are generally more profitable than large ones. Most large machines, regardless of their source, do not break-even in terms of profitability."
A key constraint is the income of the farmer. Chinese two wheel tractors are less robust, lasting only 2-4 years, but are still preferred in both South Asia and Tanzania because of lower initial cost. Many farmers hope to raise their income and save to buy a higher quality Japanese one.
Finally, Agyei-Holmes found that underlying poverty means that the adoption of two wheel tractors requires some push by government or donors though subsidies and credit and the establishment of service centres selling machines and parts.
Both studies point to out that these technologies give a huge boost in production and productivity to small and medium farmers, and are much more effective at that level than four wheel tractors. Yet Mozambique (along with many other countries) continues to emphasise big tractors. jh
* From:
MOZAMBIQUE 292
News reports & clippings
28 June 2015
=========
Editor: Joseph Hanlon ( j.hanlon@open.ac.uk)
To subscribe: tinyurl.com/sub-moz
MOZAMBIQUE 292
News reports & clippings
28 June 2015
=========
Editor: Joseph Hanlon ( j.hanlon@open.ac.uk)
To subscribe: tinyurl.com/sub-moz
