Presented at the High-Level Ministerial (HLM) Conference on Rice Development in Sub-Saharan Africa 25 September 2018 Dakar, Senegal Abebe Haile-Gabriel FAO Regional Programme Leader for Africa, RAF

1. Scaling-up agricultural mechanization
High-Level Ministerial (HLM) Conference on Rice Development in Sub-Saharan Africa 25 September 2018
Dakar, Senegal
Abebe Haile-Gabriel
FAO Regional Programme Leader for Africa, RAF

2. Some of the trends related to agriculture in SSA
• Hunger and Undernourishment
on the rise
• Agriculture will need to feed
the growing population in SSA
(est. 2.2 billion by 2050)
• Other Challenges such as climate
change etc.
• Africa has the highest Prevalence of
undernourishment (PoU) - >256m
people
• More people will be living in urban
areas – changes in food
preferences
• Agriculture has to be carried out in a
sustainable way
…… this calls for the need to raise agricultural production and productivity
21%

3. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Africa Three Regions*
Manual
Animal
Engine
The ratio of farm power source utilization in SSA compared to three developing regions
(Asia, Near East and North Africa, and Latin America and Caribbean)*.
Power use in agriculture

4. Primary land preparation, SSA (2005)
11%
70%
54%
50%
22%
21%
8%
25%
17%
85%
70%
54%
50%

5. Public Investment:
Share of agriculture in total expenditure, 2014
Source: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 2017

6. Mechanization challenges in Africa that need to be addressed
Some of the challenges that mechanization scaling up in SSA should address are:
• Farm power constraint in agriculture in the region.
• Lack of holistic approach to mechanization of the agri-food chain – i.e. financing, value
addition activities etc.
• Inefficient use and field operation rates of agricultural machinery.
• Sustainability (environmental, economical and social- including gender aspects)

7. Scaling Up Mechanization in Africa
We need to expedite use of sustainable mechanization in Africa:
• Ensuring that policies are in place to support investment in agriculture including mechanization
• Organizing financial resources to support investment in mechanization
• Adhering to value chain approach
• Well defined role of the private sector to drive mechanization in alignment with set priorities of the
countries
• Capacity building including supporting mechanization hire services
• Ensuring mechanization efforts are not stand alone but rather part of the larger effort
Scaling up is necessary for increased uptake of mechanization among
stakeholders – it involves interactions of stakeholders, sustainability etc.

8. Scaling-up mechanization in Africa
Some of the key issues to consider when scaling up:
• Better understanding of the key stakeholders and their clear understanding of their roles
• Creating enabling environment for upscaling mechanization
• Ensuring that private sector is well engaged (e.g. through PPPs) and given support to
drive mechanization while governments are creating supporting enabling environment
• Field-based methods of capacity building and capacity development that are integrated
with proven and well tested training methodologies
• A wider focus i.e. not only equipment and machinery but rather approach, process,
stakeholders engagement, incentives, updated supporting policy and strategies etc.
• Emphasizing on innovations including use of ICT & automations in enhancing
mechanization along the value chain-i.e. bringing the youth back to agriculture

9. Emphasis on sustainability while scaling up
© IITA
We also need to ensure that mechanization in Africa is
commercially, environmentally and socio-economically
sustainable:
• productive agriculture that conserves and enhances the natural resource base
• Agriculture that supports the delivery of environmental services.
• Identification and specification of appropriate business models especially for
smallholder mechanization
– e.g. commercially sustainable business model for custom hiring services
• Financial models that enable small/medium scale farmers to access agricultural
machinery

10. Conclusion
• SSA needs to make significant progress in mechanizing its agriculture (along the value
chains)
• Scaling up is a long term issue that needs to be part of the strategies to develop
sustainable mechanization in Africa
• There is a need for a long-term vision of mechanization (investments, innovation, tech
transfer etc.)
• Regional cooperation is essential
• It is important to develop institutional infrastructures that support sustainable
mechanization in Africa
• Enabling private sector to enhance sustainable mechanization service provision - including
PPPs is essential