BOOK LAUNCH An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia? FEB 9, 2021 - 09:30 AM TO 10:30 AM EST

1. 1
An evolving paradigm of
agricultural mechanization
development: How much can
Africa learn from Asia?
Discussion on book
Thomas Daum

2. “Importance of functional mechanization
hiring markets” (but market failure)
2
▪ Institutional solutions are key (Daum & Birner, 2020)
▪ In Zambia, we find large benefits for smallholders (Adu-Baffour et al., 2019)
▪ Large variation in tractor profitability (IRR from – 28% to 350%)
▪ Transaction costs constrain markets
▪ Intermediaries were essential to pool farmers
▪ Uber for Tractors? (Daum et al., 2020)
▪ Much potential but no silver bullets
▪ More useful for large-scale, migratory service providers than
those focusing on neighborhoods
Daum, T., & Birner, R. (Global Food Security, 2020)
Adu-Baffour et al. (Food Policy, 2019)
Daum et al. (UOH Working Paper, 2020)

3. Busting myths and understanding effects
3
▪ Example: Labor effects
▪ Often creates employment (Daum & Birner, 2020)
▪ In Zambia, demand for hired labor
increased due to land expansion and
reduction of family labor (Adu-Baffour et al., 2019)
▪ But not everything is positive
▪ Deforestation, soil erosion, gender access
(Daum et al., 2020)
▪ Can be minimized with complementary
policies
▪ Based on Adu-Baffour, F., Daum, T., &
Birner, R.
Daum, T., & Birner, R. (Global Food Security, 2020).
Adu-Baffour et al., (Food Policy, 2019)
Daum et al. (Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2020)

4. “Governments played a critical role in
creating an enabling environment”
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▪ Providing private goods attractive but fails (Daum & Birner, 2017; Daum & Birner, 2020)
▪ Enabling environment and public goods needed (Daum et al., 2018)
Daum, T., & Birner, R. (Food Security, 2017) and Daum, T., & Birner, R. (Global Food Security, 2020).
Daum, T., Huffman, W. E., & Birner, R. (ISU Working Paper, 2018)

5. Agricultural mechanization
and time use
A smartphone app study in Zambia
Thank you!
Bild: Hannes Buchwald
For any requests, thoughts or
questions, you can write to
thomas.daum@uni-hohenheim.de