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Moderated e-mail conference on small farms and food security

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Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:49:12 +0000
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This is Scott Justice, CIMMYT Nepal office. I am an agricultural and rural mechanization specialist (not an agricultural engineer) working in mechanization research and development for last 20 years.

In Asia and Africa over the last 15-20 years, there has been a growing avalanche of old and new models of agri machinery, in large and small agri machinery, in all sectors (production, protection, harvest and post-harvest). And new ideas and innovations are coming into the markets the time. Again, both in large scale but especially in small scale lower horse power machinery. And mostly, for good or bad, coming out of China (but other countries like India, Thailand, Vietnam, etc are picking up).   

Prior to this, the choice of technology for farmer or for development professional or policy maker in the developing world was to choose from European / US / Japanese made large scale tractors etc. or bullock/manual equipment. There was little or no middle path in small scale appropriate and, just as important, "price appropriate" machinery. Then entered Chinese 2-wheel tractor (12-18 horsepower tiller r) and irrigation pumpsets (in the case of Thailand, Thai-made power tillers tractors with subsidized Japanese engines). In places like Bangladesh and Vietnam, the new pumpsets and later small tractors were via vibrant rural service markets, able to bring winter / dry season fallows not only into production but, especially in Bangladesh, the winter rice area grew 3 times and yields nearly doubled and it now produces 2 times more than main season rice! Similar story in Vietnam.

That all said, I want to respond to Question 3.3.4 ("Many small farmers participate in the rural non-farm economy to generate additional income. Does this increase the contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition?"):

There is a growing body of evidence that in many Asian countries that have considerable growth in the rural non-farm sector, a strong and scale appropriate agri mechanization process preceded it. And as Elisha Otieno Gogo (Message 75) and others have previously said, with growth in the non-farm sector these additional full and part time jobs create additional  income sources that not only contribute to household food security but overall livelihood improvements. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, Bangladesh was the basket case of international development. But with growth in food production and increases in non-farm sector, more than 60% of farm household income comes from off the farm. And with major growth in the spread of irrigation pumpsets and 2-wheel tractor/power tillers to where averaging cropping intensity is well over 200% and Bangladesh is a net exporter of food in the 2000s. I know this alone does not mean access to food but in Bangladesh they have done very well nutrition goals. And with the improved rural roads, reports are coming that the large garment factories (garment factories are a 25 B USD business there) are moving into rural areas where there are high population levels, so even more formal sector work opportunities are coming to rural people-part time farmers. 

With similar but earlier mechanization processes in Thailand and Vietnam, these two countries have been in the top three exporters of rice in the world for the last 15 years. And they do so mostly with small scale power tillers and even small scale combine harvester- machinery that can get easy access to, and manoeuvre within, small fragmented holdings. To the point that even with India as #1 producer of four-wheel tractors in the world, they have less than 60 % of their farmers with access to mechanized tillage. In Bangladesh, it's over 90%. Even with this high level of mechanization and concomitant high levels of productivity, these countries face labor shortages and increasing wage rates. This is no longer the 1980s where fear of mechanization - American style - kept many governments and donors from programming in this area. 

That all said, I know that many countries don't have the water resources that Bangladesh/Asia have but, even up to 1990 without the pumps and without the shallow tube wells,  Bangladesh was in constant food crisis. There needs to be a much more serious look at irrigation but also at small machinery for rainfed agriculture capable of conservation agriculture (no till reduced till systems) that can make much better use of water and get more crop per drop.   

As I have started work in Africa recently, I am very concerned with government and private sector attitudes towards small scale machinery. Many senior folks even joke about farmers using small scale machinery while holding national ambitions that their agricultural mechanization process should look like the west's or even worse the Punjab's, both facing major environmental and water crises.  

Sorry to have gone on so long, but I'll just add in parting that in many cases and arguments for increasing food security and improved livelihoods and selection of the technology that a nation uses to promote improvements, size matters!

Scott E. Justice
Agricultural Mechanization Specialist
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) International, 
South Asia Regional Office
Botany Division, 1st Floor, NARC
Khumaltar, Lalitpur
P.O. Box: 5186
Kathmandu, 
Nepal
skype: mmcjustice  
cel: +977 98510-27678
E-mail: sejustice (at) gmail.com

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