Abstract
Conservation agriculture (CA) is an increasingly adopted production system to meet the goals of sustainable crop production intensification in feeding a growing world population whilst conserving natural resources. Mechanization (especially power units, seeders, rippers and sprayers) is a key input for CA and smallholder farmers often have difficulties in making the necessary investments. Donors may be able to provide mechanization inputs in the short term, but this is not a sustainable solution as a machinery input supply chain needs to be built up to continue availability after external interventions cease. Local manufacture should be supported, as was the case in Brazil, but this is a slow development process, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. A more immediate solution is to equip and train CA service provision entrepreneurs. With the right equipment, selected for the needs of their local clientele, and the right technical and business management training, such entrepreneurs can make a livelihood by supplying high quality CA and other mechanization services on a fully costed basis. Elements of the required training, based on extensive field experience, are provided. To catalyse the growth of CA providers’ business, the market can be stimulated for an initial period by issuing e-vouchers for services and inputs.
Highlights
Smallholder agriculture is the mainstay of food production in the world’s developing countries and is the key to ensuring long-term global food security [1]
The world’s 500 million smallholder farms currently produce around 80 percent of our food and it is they who will have to bear the brunt of the need to increase food production by over 60 percent compared to 2007 levels
The remainder of this paper examines in some detail the need for an agricultural mechanization supply chain for smallholder farmers as mechanization is such a crucial input to the sustainable crop production intensification (SCPI) paradigm in this world of endangered resources and increasing demand
Summary
Smallholder agriculture is the mainstay of food production in the world’s developing countries and is the key to ensuring long-term global food security [1]. Improving smallholders’ access to crucial mechanization inputs is frequently fraught with difficulties as the adoption of any innovation must be seen as a useful and profitable investment from the perspective of the farmer This prerequisite would trigger the necessary demand for these innovations which should lead to an increased or stabilized supply. Continuing to lose soil carbon through erosion and oxidation is no longer an option if we are to constrain global temperature rises to within manageable limits This description of the situation and the threats to future agricultural production point clearly to the need for a generic switch in the model for smallholder food production at global scale. The remainder of this paper examines in some detail the need for an agricultural mechanization supply chain for smallholder farmers as mechanization is such a crucial input to the SCPI paradigm in this world of endangered resources and increasing demand
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