1. Accelerating access to mechanized
services in India: lessons from
Bangladesh
CSISA Objective 1
Planning Meeting
Kathmandu, Nepal
January 23- 25th, 2013
Scott Justice
NAEF, Consultant: CIMMYT Bangladesh, IRRI Cambodia, etc
Stephen Biggs,
Research Fellow, University of East Anglia

2. Broad definition of mechanization –
not just production and CA
– Includes harvest, post harvest and even
cross sector into rural transport and
energy
– Success to promoting 2 or 4 WTs and
their agricultural attachments, including
CA machinery is to understand how
import other sectors are for the primary
mover / tractor ownership

3. Throw the net wider
• Look around in south Asia for proven durable
machinery products
– Yes look in India –Yes look at Bangladesh, etc
• But also look to similar East Asian countries
– Thailand and Vietnam #1 and #2 exporters of rice
in the world, small and fragmented farms and
done with 3M 2WTs, more and more broadcast
rice, and mini reapers/threshers, and mini –track
combines

4. Multiple paths to higher levels of
mechanization
• India
– Largest Producer of 4WTs in the world
• 400,000 / year
• 3.5 M Total
• 50-60% of Indian farmers using mechanized tillage
• Bangladesh
– Largest Importer of Chinese 2WTs in the world
• 60,000 / year
• 500,000 total
• 90+ % of all Bangladesh’s using mechanized tillage
– With the help of 40,000 4WTS
» Its not an either or –very complementary technologies

5. Socially Equitable Mechanization
Processes
• Our Premise- small scale machinery
more accessible to both small and
large farmers- inverse is not necessarily
true
– Evidence that higher levels of ag
mechanization increases growth in non-
farm rural industries and rural
employment (alternative livelihoods and
rural development)

6. Socially Equitable Mechanization
Processes
• Beneficiaries of machinery
–Owner/Service Provider
• Benefits from use on own farm
• Benefits ia service provision of
machinery
–India: 3,000,000 4 WT Owners/HHs
–Bangladesh 500,000 2WT owners/HHs

7. Socially Equitable Mechanization
Processes
• Beneficiaries of machinery
– Renter: less individual monetary- but exponentially
more renters (esp. farm HHs who cannot afford
machinery)
• 500,000 2WTs x 20-30 HHs = 10 – 15 M Farm HHs
• 3,000,000 x ?? HH= ??
– Benefits to renters include:
• On time farm operations
• Reduced turn around times
• Increased cropping intensity
• Reduced labor costs / drudgery

8. Socially Equitable Mechanization
Processes
• Beneficiaries of machinery
– Exchequer benefits – much more from renters
than owners
– Benefits include:
• Increased food security
• Increased rural employment

9. First Lesson from Bangladesh
• Till 1987 little success in wide spread
mechanization efforts
• Govt made two important policy changes in 1987
– disbanded govt ag engg machine quality vetting
group
– Reduced tariffs
• Mechanization has been 95% private sector led
• Private sector selected what machinery to
introduce

10. Second lesson from Bangladesh
• Private sector selected cheap lightweight China diesel
pumpsets
– Starting in early-mid 1980s
• Since 2000
– 100,000 Chinese diesel engines imported / year
– Lay flat pipes bring further water savings
• 2010 – 1.4 M STWs
• 70% area irrigated
– 90% of this is STW - with remaining surface and DTW
– Maximizing the shallow and plentiful IGP aquifers
– Fair access via SPs and water markets emerged-renter gets
water when needed
– Central and northern Bangladesh currently reaching 100%
shallow aquifer utilization
• Appu 1974 Spread of mobile pumpsets in Purnia and Saharsa Districts- depackaged the
govt stationary big heavy Kiloskar pumpsets and immediate started markets for water
services.

11. Third lesson from Bangladesh
• 1980s diesel pumpsets, fertilizers and
better varieties paved way in the 1990s for
2WTs
– GOB dropped all barriers in 1988
– 1995 200,000
– 2000 300,000
– 2010 450,000 – 500,000
• 55,000 – 60,000 imported per year
– 90% of all farmers using mechanized Tillage

12. Fourth lesson from Bangladesh
• The rise of good varieties, water and machinery= intensification
• Boro rice along with fertilizer use tied to increasing # of STW
Total rice Aus Aman Boro Expon. (Total rice)
33,640
40,000
32,260
31,317
28,930
35,000
27,312
26,530
26,189
25,183
25,168
25,085
24,300
30,000
23,067
19,905
18,880
18,862
18,341
18,255
25,000
18,042
17,785
17,687
16,833
'000 MT
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
y = 15678e0.0346x
- R2 = 0.9278
1990-91
1991-92
1992-93
1993-94
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
M A S Mandal, 2011, BAU

13. Other Lessons Learned
• Moving from animal tillage to small mechanized
tillage is a good thing!
– And not all rotovators are not the same
• Smallholders with fragmented increasingly frag
plots are very productive and competitive and via
small farm mechanization
• Labor Intensive agricultural mechanization process
• Complementarity of two and four wheel tractor -
not mutually exclusive

14. Other Lessons Learned
• Increased water, better varieties and
mechanization leads to:
– Increased intensification 2.2 – 2.3 CI
– Increased productivity
– Increased need for specialized farm labor
– Increase growth and employment in the non-farm rural
sector- 60+% of farmer income from NFS
• (M. Hoosain 2004, Mandal 2001)
• Complementarity of two and four wheel tractor -
not mutually exclusive- 2WTs are not going away
• Siddique, Ashraf, et al., 2012. Study into the Commercialization
of Selected Agricultural Machines in Bangladesh.

15. Lessons yet to be learned
• Good understanding on mechanization’s impact
on women
• Womenization and aging of the family farm

16. Lessons yet to be learned
• Mechanizing seeding and planting with 2WTs
– Possibilities and hopes but no real market success - yet
• Bedplanters
• Fulltill / Strip till drills/planters
• VMP
• Tool bar / inverted T openers
• Mini Happy Seeder
• Attachments/seeders etc needed for recently emerged
4WT sector in Bangladesh- only rotovators
• Two emerging labor bottlenecks
– No machinery in market for mechanizing harvest of small
fragmented holdings- look to east Asia for durable products
– No machinery in market for mechanizing transplanting – look
where for durable products?

17. Nepal- Some Lessons Learned on
Small Scale Mechanizationand
• Group ownership doesn’t work- but it’s an
excellent for “fair” demos
• Small machinery “self selects” the
populations we want to reach- lower social-
economic status and janjatis

18. Nepal- Lessons and potential
machinery in long neglected hill
agriculture
– Hills
• 50% of 2WT sales Is in the hills of Nepal
• Irrigation/water scarcities
– Centrifugal pumpsets, axial flow pumps, plastic lined ponds,
drip irrigation, use of mini and micro hydro
• Mini tiller 3-4 horsepower - Mezzo tiller 6-8 HP
– “Sized Attachments”
» planter,
» sized thresher for rice, wheat, kodo
» maize sheller,
» irrigation pump,
» rice/maize/wheat mills
» trailer
• Various jab planters

19. Next Steps for Bihar and Odisha?
• Characterizing our mechanization environment in
Odissa and Bihar
– Understand better what is going on, on the ground
• Market oriented investigations via quick initial studies and
stakeholder workshops with industry members and their
associations
– Investigations need to be quick.
– Don’t need to be heavily quantitative- descriptive
– Find what is working already and backstop it

20. Next Steps for Bihar and Odisha?
• Via the stakeholder workshop
– Organizing and backstopping the various
industries- backstop existing r form new
professional associations
– Finding the blockages

21. Next Steps for Bihar and Odissa?
WATER!
• WB’s The Ganges Strategic Basin Assessment
(2011) estimates only 30-40% shallow aquifer
usage
• Spread of light weight Chinese pumpsets and layflat
pipe or 2-wheel tractors?
– Who are the main market supplier actors? Market
impediments?
– Are SPs emerging / water markets spreading? Impediments?

22. Next Steps for Bihar and Odissa?
• Selecting other new machinery
– 4WT
• O-till drills/bedplanters/Happy Seeders
• LLL
• Reapers
• PTO threshers

23. Next Steps for Bihar and Odissa?
2WT- Small Scale Mechanization
• Attendance of hub managers to Workshop on
Rural Mechanization: Policy and Technology
Lessons from Bangladesh and other Asian
Countries March 7th and 8th, Dhaka
• Selecting other new machinery
– 2WT
• Consult with AICRP on 2WTs- Bhubaneswar/Bhopal
• Chinese, Bangladesh and Indian made O-till
drills/bedplanters/VMPs/Happy Seeders
• Reapers
• Axial flow pumps

24. Sources:
Siddique, Ashraf, et al., 2012. Study into the Commercialization of Selected Agricultural Machines in
Bangladesh. Dhaka: International Development Enterprises (iDE) – Bangladesh. (Report for the
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Bangladesh)
Biggs, S. Justice, S. & Lewis, D. 2011. Patterns of Rural Mechanisation, Energy and Employment in South
Asia: Reopening the Debate. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLVI, No. 9, pp. 78-82.
Biggs, Stephen & Justice, Scott. 2011. Rural Development and Energy Policy: Lessons from Agricultural
Mechanisation in South Asia. ORF Occasional Paper No. 19. New Delhi: Observer Research Foundation
(http://www.observerindia.com/cms/sites/orfonline/modules/occasionalpaper/OccasionalPaperList.ht
ml)
Justice, Scott & Biggs, Stephen, 2010. Diverse Patterns of Rural and Agricultural Mechanisation in
Bangladesh and Nepal: Status and Emerging themes. (Section for a FAO book on Agricultural
Mechanisation.)
Mandal, M.A. Sattar, 2011. Design and Implementation of Agriculture and Food Security Strategies:
Reflections on Bangladesh Experience. Presented at the International Workshop and Conference on
‘Knowledge, Tools and Lessons for Informing the Design and Implementation of Food security Strategies’
held in Kathmandu, Nepal, 14-16 November 2011
Sadoff, Claudia, Harshadeep Rao THE GANGES STRATEGIC BASIN ASSESSMENT World Water Week, 21
August 2011 The World Bank
http://www.worldwaterweek.org/documents/WWW_PDF/2011/Sunday/K23/Promoting-
Cooperation-in-the-Ganges-Basin-through-Dialog/Harsh-Ganges-Basin-Introduction.pdf