Growing affordable mechanization options for African farmers

African farming is by far still of the small holder subsistence, hand-tool variety, with the back-breaking manual labor and the inefficiency that this entails. In many areas the various types of animal-drawn implements that have long been in use for tilling the land are the only form of widely-used mechanization.

As African governments and private players all over the continent pay renewed attention to how to boost agricultural productivity, one of many areas that is being addressed is how to make simple mechanized appropriate technology more available to small and medium-scale commercial farmers. In countries with well-developed commercial farming sectors, those have access to the capital to purchase machinery for intensive production such as large-horsepower tractors and combine harvesters, but this is a numerically small though economically important segment of agriculture even in those countries.

Most of the Western equipment manufacturers cater only for the large government or private farming estates, importing or locally assembling machines out of the needs and affordability-ranges of the small farmer. In most countries there are various levels of local manufacturing of farm implements, but they are predominantly of the manual or animal-drawn variety.

A development in recent years has been the entry into African markets of Asian manufacturers offering intermediate technologies well-suited to African conditions. Companies in China and India have taken a particular interest in the large gap in a potentially huge market and are marketing their products aggressively. They offer more affordable alternatives of heavy machinery to rival those of the established market leaders, but they also offer a dazzling array of small mechanized equipment at attractive prices.

Whatever market resistance there has been to these new entrants to the equipment market on the basis of brand unfamiliarity, quality and longevity issues is slowly falling away. Any doubts are overcome by the fact that the appropriateness of the machinery and their pricing make it possible for many small farmers to contemplate mechanizing their operations for the first time. As China's controversial, much-discussed entry into Africa continues apace, spare parts back-up which has been poor in recent years has begun to improve. Apart from the pricing, the generally simple but usually rugged design and construction of much of the machinery make repairs easy for local mechanics even in the rural areas.

Indian automotive manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra has announced plans to enter the South African agricultural machinery market with a range of tractors from 30 up to 80 horsepower. Said Vijay Nakra, the company's South Africa chief executive, "The niche we are looking to secure is that of farmers looking for smaller, value-for-money tractors. We will ensure our tractors will be competitively priced and will not be looking for a price premium."

An increasing number of people going into commercial farming and the greater availability of various credit schemes are some of the other factors that account for the development of this still small but growing trend towards mechanization. New manufacturer entrants see the potential of a segment that has before now not been considered lucrative enough to pay attention to, and are looking to cash in on it by establishing themselves in various African markets where agriculture is growing.

Chido Makunike

African Agriculture