Giving power tiller to African farmers

An innovative project funded by the FAO is bringing to Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe the technologies that transformed the Bangladeshi agriculture: cheap, easy to operate, easy to maintain two-wheel tractors. Although these small tractors are not powerful enough to plough, they can be fitted with seeders adapted to plant directly in an unploughed field. This practice – known as “conservation agriculture” - saves time and fuel and protects the soil from erosion. In addition, two-wheel tractors are very versatile: they can be fitted to a trailer and used for transport of inputs and produce, they can also be used as a stationary source of power and be fitted to a variety of ancillary equipment including water pumps, wheat threshers and maize shellers.

The project will improve farm productivity by increasing the area one farm can cultivate, and by allowing critical operations to be performed on time. It will reduce the cost of production, and therefore increase profitability of farming. It will release family labour from field activities to other more rewarding and income-generating activities. It will also create employment, for example for fuel supply and the repair of the tractors.

But the project is of course not about providing a tractor to each farming family in the targeted areas. Inspired by Bangladesh, where only one out of every 30 users owns a tractor, the project will stimulate the creation of custom hiring services provided by rural entrepreneurs. For the impact of the project to be sustained, agribusinesses will also be encouraged to participate actively, and invest time and resources in the promotion of the machines, in training and in accessing credit facilities. In fact, the project is much more about developing commercial models to deliver tractor services to smallholder farmers than it is about merely testing and demonstrating the machines.

The project was launched on the 25th of March in Arusha, Tanzania and will spend the next six years demonstrating the critical role small mechanization can play in improving farm productivity, freeing women from back breaking manual labor and creating rural employment.