Rural mechanisation: a review of processes, policies, practice and literature

Abstract

HE PAST 30 YEARS has witnessed a very significant growth of interest in, and funding T of, rural mechanisation programmes and projects, and the mechanisation components of a broader range of initiatives in developing countries. Arguably the key feature and central lesson to be taken on board by development planners, policy-makers and practitioners from this experience has been the diversity of patterns and mixed outcomes of such rural mechanisation strategies.A range of technologies have been generated, promoted, adopted and adapted at different rates by avarietyof actors (driven by motives of all kinds) in disparate rural contexts. Most importantly, the intended and actual beneficiaries have also been far from uniform and often widely different from the stated objectives of mechanisation policies. Much evidence suggests that mechanical equipment has either not been used or has been used very little; outcomes have tended to be quite different from those expected; and the most vulnerable sections of the rural population (landless labourers, women, smallholders and tenants) have often been negatively affected. This is not to say, of course, that mechanisation has had only negative effects. Productivity gains, decreases in drudgery, new employment opportunities, for example, have often resulted from mechanisation initiatives.Rural mechanisation processes are much more complex than has typically been recognised in the past. In particular, it seems that inadequate attention has been given, at least until very recently (see especially much of the current work on irrigation

Energy and the Evolution of Farming Systems: The Potential of Mixed Farming in the Moist Savannah of Sub-Saharan Africa

“…The theory of induced innovation principally used 'choice of technique analysis' to explain the process of transition from mixed farming to specialization in the advanced countries, and intensification within the framework of long-established mixed farming in Asia (Gass and Biggs, 1993). Little has been said about the circumstances and forces that led to the evolution of mixed farming in Asia, Europe and North America at different times and in different forms.…”

Definition of Reference Models for Power, Weight, Working Width, and Price for Seeding Machines

“…Most common techniques used in the operation research are linear programming, simulation, mixed integer programming [15]. The application of linear programming models includes large frames in agriculture planning, which mainly can be classified as follows: crop production (planning, prediction, and protection), farm mechanisation, farm cost calculation, assessment of agricultural policies, soil stress, and environmental protection [16][17][18][19][20][21]. Despite the fact that the objectives of the operation management units are different, they are linked: as a consequence it is possible to reapply the designed tools, merge or use the outcomes of methods as initial data for further simulations and research, ensuring the balanced development of the chain (crop production management, farm equipment evaluation and set definition, soil compaction calculation, carbon footprint) [14,[22][23][24].…”

The comparative role of independent and intervening variables on influencing the adoption of nitrogen fertilization among maize growers in the Njombe District

“…44 No. 2, 2016: 1 -18 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2413-3221/2016 6 such as less access to resources and to extension information (Jefremovas, 1991;Stephens, 1992;Gass & Bigs, 1993).…”