| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| ID | 7485 |
| Purpose / Type of problem | Type 1 - Report a problem for the Research & Innovation agenda |
| Thematic area | Area 2 - Sustainable agriculture | Agriculture durable |
| Language | English |
| Region | West Africa |
| Organization (full name) | Independent consultant with FAO etc |
| Organization acronym | |
| Department / unit | |
| Type of organization | Consultant |
| Country | Myanmar (Burma) |
| Problem name | Limits of agronomy- little or no scale appropriate mechanization R&D |
| Problem description | Agronomic development, does an excellent job of determining the physical potential of an area or technical innovation. It says nothing about what are the Operational Requirements for producers to extend that technology from the replicated small plot trials or demonstrations, perhaps at most 0.1 ha, and simply ignores the problem of how the farmer is going extend it to their avg size holding of 1-1.5 ha. It also usually is pushing through CA etc so called sustainable intensification and even extensification which is needed to support livelihood outcomes for the family. No one is conceptualizing or at least bringing serious R&D resources to address the operational needs for farm family or really the whole community wide implementation of agron innovations and intensification. |
| Problem Consequences | Farm's labor cannot physically complete tasks timely especially on limited caloric diet and outcomes of any new agron tech or seed tech is greatly affected. |
| Problem References | For well over a decade (at least since the 2007-08 world economic crisis) AU, AfdB, AGRA FAO and CG make great pronouncements around banning the hoe promoting sustainable intensification and mechanization and CA (itself implies some powered mechanisms for opening and planting into untilled ground) for improving soil health etc. but in this last decade have very brought little R&D resources to bear. Private sector and the odd pvt sector - govt tractor large tractor projects in Nigeria, GHana Zimbabwe is left to help mostly the politically connected and large scale farmers. Ian Scoones- https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/why-tractors-are-political-in-africa/ , Richard Tinsley https://agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/promoting-the-green-revolution-in-asia-as-solely-technology-driven-a-major-disservice-to-africa/ , https://www.ifpri.org/blog/ifpri-book-what-africa-can-learn-asia-about-agricultural-mechanization, Lidia Cabral, https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/14400 |
| Affected group 1 | Every small scale SS Africa farmer |
| Impact on group 1 | With family labor only failure to be able to apply the agron technology/seed technology timely or across an larger area needed to result in livelihoods improvement. |
| Option group 1 | Hiring in locally owned and operated scale appropriate agri machinery for planting larger area and managing and harvesting crop #1 on time so as to repeat the above- hire in machine to plant crop #2 on time and taking advantage of sufficient residual soil moist. |
| Reach affected group 1 | Agrons, breeders and agri mechanization specialists and promoting private sector importers and manuf to do on farm demos and promote pvt sector machinery ownership via hired ag mech services to the larger community. |
| Affected group 2 | NARIs and IARIs |
| Impact on group 2 | Failure of their donors and their funded R&D germplasm and agronomy programs in improving African families' livelihoods, food security and nutrition AND their access to affordable, resource conserving, scale appropriate machinery. |
| Option group 2 | Donors to shift resources or make additional resources available for at similar scale to the other disciplines to scale appropriate mechanization R&D efforts that are closely tied with private sector suppliers AND not just multinational tractor manufacturers. |
| Reach affected group 2 | You are the group. |
| Affected group 3 | Private sector suppliers of scale appropriate machinery |
| Impact on group 3 | Currently by having very little scale appropriate technology to offer their sectors growth and impact is negligible |
| Option group 3 | With group 2's business development support the pvt sector to look around in Asia and elsewhere for scale appropriate machinery tech to offer in FFDs and other extension events. |
| Reach affected group 3 | IFPRI's old South South MEchanization program could serve as a framework to start work in West AFrica.. |
| Responsible group 1 | See above |
| Impact of group 1 | See above |
| Change group 1 | See above |
| Reach responsible group 1 | See above |
| Responsible group 2 | |
| Impact of group 2 | |
| Change group 2 | |
| Reach responsible group 2 | |
| Responsible group 3 | |
| Impact of group 3 | |
| Change group 3 | |
| Reach responsible group 3 | |
| Comment | Good luck. |
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