Q+A: Agricultural mechanization fuels opportunity for youth in rural Africa
Thursday, 2017/05/11 | 07:42:12
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by Matthew O’Leary / CGIAR April 26, 2017
Figure: Farmers test out agricultural mechanization tools in Zimbabwe as part of CIMMYT’s Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification project. Photo: CIMMYT/ Frédéric Baudron
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Small-scale agricultural mechanization is showing signs it has the potential to fuel rural employment for youth in sub-Saharan Africa, according to researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Across Africa, youth are struggling with high unemployment and working poverty, the International Labor Organization records. However, increased adoption of agricultural mechanization – especially machines that are small, affordable and easy to maintain such as two-wheel tractors – is stimulating jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for African youth, said Frédéric Baudron, senior systems agronomist at CIMMYT.
“Small-scale mechanization is more equitable than other forms of mechanization as even the poorest and most vulnerable have access to it,” he said.
Youth, along with women, are typically subject to labor intensive farm activities causing them to shun agriculture. But with mechanization improving productivity while reducing drudgery, youth are seeing economic opportunity in agribusiness, on rural farms and as service providers, said Rabe Yahaya, a CIM/GIZ integrated expert specialized in mechanization for sustainable agriculture intensification.
As a result, new jobs along the value chain from mechanics to spare parts providers have been created, he added.
Relatively cheap and easy to operate two-wheel tractors can be used for many different applications. On-farm, the tractors are used to speed up crop establishment while conserving soils through reduced tillage and precision fertilizer application. They allow farmers to tap into surface water for irrigation as well as aid shelling grain to reduce the time taken to get to market. The machinery has also been used to start rural commercial hire and transport services.
See more: http://www.cimmyt.org/qa-agricultural-mechanization-fuels-opportunity-for-youth-in-rural-africa/ |
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