IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v7y2017i6p50-d101086.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization for Smallholders: What Is It and How Can We Implement It?

Author

Listed:
  • Brian Sims

    (3 Bourneside, Bedford MK41 7EG, UK)

  • Josef Kienzle

    (Plant Production and Protection Division, FAO, Viale delle Termi di Caracalla, Rome 00153, Italy)

Abstract

Smallholder farmers are the main producers of the world’s food and they will have to increase production by up to 100 percent by 2050 to feed the growing population. This must be achieved while preserving natural resources and that is why sustainable agricultural mechanization (SAM) will be fundamental to the process. SAM is climate-smart and environmentally benign and essentially means no-till conservation agriculture, which requires specific mechanization inputs. Principally, these are seeders and planters capable of penetrating soil surface vegetative cover to deposit seed and fertilizer at the required depth and spacing; and equipment for management of cover crops and weeds. Mechanization is required not only for crop production, but also for processing and along the entire value chain. Mechanization inputs are usually expensive and so specialist service provision will be the indicated way forward. This will need collaboration from both the private and public sectors and will involve public-private partnerships to be developed in one form or another. Given the poor track record of public sector mechanization provision, the delivery of SAM should be firmly in the hands of the private sector that should be committed to SAM principles or otherwise be incentivized to the concept through smart subsidies. Improved information flows via smallholder farmer-friendly innovation platforms; and continuing development and testing of SAM technologies via regional centres of excellence will both be required—especially for sub-Saharan Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Sims & Josef Kienzle, 2017. "Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization for Smallholders: What Is It and How Can We Implement It?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-21, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:7:y:2017:i:6:p:50-:d:101086
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/7/6/50/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/7/6/50/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leslie Lipper & Philip Thornton & Bruce M. Campbell & Tobias Baedeker & Ademola Braimoh & Martin Bwalya & Patrick Caron & Andrea Cattaneo & Dennis Garrity & Kevin Henry & Ryan Hottle & Louise Jackson , 2014. "Climate-smart agriculture for food security," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1068-1072, December.
    2. Unknown, 2016. "Proceedings Of Abstracts," 152nd Seminar, August 30 - September 1, 2016, Novi Sad, Serbia 244068, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Amanor, Kojo S. & Chichava, Sérgio, 2016. "South–South Cooperation, Agribusiness, and African Agricultural Development: Brazil and China in Ghana and Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 13-23.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Helena Shilomboleni, 2020. "Political economy challenges for climate smart agriculture in Africa," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1195-1206, December.
    2. Oehmke, James F. & Young, Sera L. & Heinemann, Allen W. & Rukuni, Mandivamba & Lyambabaje, Alexandre & Post, Lori A., 2022. "A novel measure of developing countries' agricultural and food policy readiness," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Jeetendra Prakash Aryal & Cathy R. Farnworth & Ritika Khurana & Srabashi Ray & Tek B. Sapkota & Dil Bahadur Rahut, 2020. "Does women’s participation in agricultural technology adoption decisions affect the adoption of climate‐smart agriculture? Insights from Indo‐Gangetic Plains of India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 973-990, August.
    4. Islam, Zeenatul & Sabiha, Noor E & Salim, Ruhul, 2022. "Integrated environment-smart agricultural practices: A strategy towards climate-resilient agriculture," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 59-72.
    5. Michael Vössing & Niklas Kühl & Matteo Lind & Gerhard Satzger, 2022. "Designing Transparency for Effective Human-AI Collaboration," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 877-895, June.
    6. Nelson Mango & Clifton Makate & Lulseged Tamene & Powell Mponela & Gift Ndengu, 2018. "Adoption of Small-Scale Irrigation Farming as a Climate-Smart Agriculture Practice and Its Influence on Household Income in the Chinyanja Triangle, Southern Africa," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-19, April.
    7. Kibria, Abu SMG & Costanza, Robert & Soto, José R, 2022. "Modeling the complex associations of human wellbeing dimensions in a coupled human-natural system: In contexts of marginalized communities," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 466(C).
    8. Maren Radeny & Elizaphan J. O. Rao & Maurice Juma Ogada & John W. Recha & Dawit Solomon, 2022. "Impacts of climate-smart crop varieties and livestock breeds on the food security of smallholder farmers in Kenya," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(6), pages 1511-1535, December.
    9. Ignaciuk, Ada & Malevolti, Giulia & Scognamillo, Antonio & Sitko, Nicholas J., 2022. "Can food aid relax farmers’ constraints to adopting climate-adaptive agricultural practices? Evidence from Ethiopia, Malawi and the United Republic of Tanzania," ESA Working Papers 324073, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    10. Nava Ashraf & Edward Glaeser & Abraham Holland & Bryce Millett Steinberg, 2017. "Water, Health and Wealth," NBER Working Papers 23807, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Iban, Muzaffer Can & Aksu, Oktay, 2020. "A model for big spatial rural data infrastructure in Turkey: Sensor-driven and integrative approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    12. Scognamillo, Antonio & Sitko, Nicholas J., 2021. "Leveraging social protection to advance climate-smart agriculture: An empirical analysis of the impacts of Malawi’s Social Action Fund (MASAF) on farmers’ adoption decisions and welfare outcomes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    13. Martin Fiszbein, 2017. "Agricultural Diversity, Structural Change and Long-run Development: Evidence from the U.S," NBER Working Papers 23183, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Ana Gouveia & Sílvia Santos & Inês Gonçalves, 2017. "The short-term impact of structural reforms on productivity growth: beyond direct effects," GEE Papers 0065, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Feb 2017.
    15. Dongrui Han & Hongyan Cai & Xiaohuan Yang & Xinliang Xu, 2020. "Multi-Source Data Modeling of the Spatial Distribution of Winter Wheat Yield in China from 2000 to 2015," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-16, July.
    16. Sohail Abbas & Zulfiqar Ali Mayo, 2021. "Impact of temperature and rainfall on rice production in Punjab, Pakistan," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 1706-1728, February.
    17. Paswel P. Marenya & Menale Kassie & Moti Jaleta & Dil Bahadur Rahut & Olaf Erenstein, 2017. "Predicting minimum tillage adoption among smallholder farmers using micro-level and policy variables," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-22, December.
    18. Sain, Gustavo & Loboguerrero, Ana María & Corner-Dolloff, Caitlin & Lizarazo, Miguel & Nowak, Andreea & Martínez-Barón, Deissy & Andrieu, Nadine, 2017. "Costs and benefits of climate-smart agriculture: The case of the Dry Corridor in Guatemala," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 163-173.
    19. Bloem, Jeffrey R., 2023. "Technology Adoption, Agricultural Productivity, and Deforestation," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335506, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Samson P. Katengeza & Stein T. Holden & Rodney W. Lunduka, 2019. "Adoption of Drought Tolerant Maize Varieties under Rainfall Stress in Malawi," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 198-214, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:7:y:2017:i:6:p:50-:d:101086. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.