Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization for Smallholders: What Is It and How Can We Implement It?

Abstract

Smallholder farmers are the main producers of the world's food and they will have to increase production by up to 100 percent by 2050 to feed the growing population. This must be achieved while preserving natural resources and that is why sustainable agricultural mechanization (SAM) will be fundamental to the process. SAM is climate-smart and environmentally benign and essentially means no-till conservation agriculture, which requires specific mechanization inputs. Principally, these are seeders and planters capable of penetrating soil surface vegetative cover to deposit seed and fertilizer at the required depth and spacing; and equipment for management of cover crops and weeds. Mechanization is required not only for crop production, but also for processing and along the entire value chain. Mechanization inputs are usually expensive and so specialist service provision will be the indicated way forward. This will need collaboration from both the private and public sectors and will involve public-private partnerships to be developed in one form or another. Given the poor track record of public sector mechanization provision, the delivery of SAM should be firmly in the hands of the private sector that should be committed to SAM principles or otherwise be incentivized to the concept through smart subsidies. Improved information flows via smallholder farmer-friendly innovation platforms; and continuing development and testing of SAM technologies via regional centres of excellence will both be required-especially for sub-Saharan Africa.

Gender dan Mekanisasi: Pengalaman Pekerja Perempuan Berpartisipasi dalam Kelompok Petik Mesin di Perkebunan Teh Gambung, Jawa Barat

“…FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) mendefinisikan istilah "mekanisasi pertanian" sebagai pembuatan, distribusi, dan pengoperasian alat, peralatan, mesin dan peralatan bertenaga sebagai input untuk pengembangan lahan pertanian dan produksi pertanian serta untuk panen dan pemrosesan hasil utama pertanian (Sims dan Kienzle, 2017). Secara umum, tiga sumber daya yang digunakan di pertanian adalah: manual, hewan, dan motor (dengan bahan bakar fosil dan listrik).…”

“…Simbol kekompakan kelompok petik mesin ditunjukkan perempuan melalui baju seragam kerja yang dimiliki oleh operator perempuan (Gambar 3. Penerapan mekanisasi pertanian juga bertujuan untuk meningkatkan produktivitas dan menghemat waktu kerja (Sims dan Kienzle, 2017). Dilihat dari kualitas kerjanya, operator perempuan memberikan hasil kerja yang lebih baik daripada laki-laki.…”

Optimization of Selection of the Machinery Park in Sustainable Agriculture

“…However, the use of relevant production technologies requires the use of the relevantly equipped machinery park. The quality of the performed work and thus the yield, soil degradation [11], as well as the impact on the farm surroundings depend on the type and technical condition of the owned machines and devices [12]. The applied technical means must be well-suited to obtain suitable production and economic effects with maintenance of resources of the natural environment [13].…”

Soil disturbance under small harvester traffic in paddy‐based smallholder farms in China

“…Lack of such information places farmers switching from manual to mechanized farming at a tipping point of sustainability. Considering that 85% of the world's 500 million farms are managed by smallholders (Sims & Kienzle, 2017), this is an important issue.…”