Agric mechanisation - When should the hoe be in the museum?

Agriculture remains the mainstay of many economies in the world. This view is further strengthened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a major challenge is limited access to the use of mechanisation in the production process.

Rudimentary tools such as the hoe and cutlass are still used as the main tools for land clearing, ploughing and sowing. The hoe has been used in land preparation for centuries. It makes one to wonder when the hoe will be in the museum and give way for full-scale mechanisation of agriculture.

Agric mechanisation in Ghana

The Vision for Ghana’s Agriculture is to have a modernised agriculture culminating in a structurally transformed economy evident in food security, employment opportunities and reduced poverty.  Therefore, one cannot talk of a modernised agriculture without the use of modern implements for land preparation, clearing, ploughing among others.

Agriculture mechanisation is far from being a reality in Ghana. The country’s tractor to farmer ratio stood at 1:1,500 as at 2016, a working paper entitled: “Mapping current incentives and investment in Ghana’s Agriculture _Lessons for private climate finance” by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) revealed.

The African Union (AU) in the latter part of 2019 launched a programme in Burkina Faso to symbolically banish the hoe to a museum and usher in the era of mechanisation. Ghana’s Ministry of women and Children affairs represented the President of Ghana to show Ghana’s commitment to it.

Over the years, though attempts have been made by Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to establish Agriculture Mechanisation Services Enterprise Centres (AMSECs), it has not adequately addressed the problem. Most of these AMSECs have collapsed and others too small to serve the demands.

Many farmers, especially female small holder farmers, are unable to access mechanisation services for their farms from land preparation to harvest.

Those that get it are not able to get them at the appropriate time. Consequently, majority of small holder farmers in the food crop sub-sector are still relying on the use of the hoe and machete for land preparation purposes.  

Aside from the limited number of implements available, the appropriateness of these equipment is in question. The implements provided are not location specific. For example, whereas some places in northern Ghana may require small handheld equipment, big and heavy tractors are in use and thereby destroying the soil in the process. Power tillers and other handheld equipment could be deployed.

Poor ploughing from untrained services providers is yet another challenge. Some operators of tractor and other mechanisation equipment have little or no training and hence are not able to operate them properly. They end up destroying the farms as well as the equipment that they use.

In instances where these mechanisation services are available, the prices are high hence making them inaccessible to poor small holder farmers.

Many farmers do not also get these services on time. The northern parts of Ghana has a short raining season period spanning June- October. Therefore, the windows of farming are very limited. They require most services in a timely manner.

Low mechanisation
The current situation of low mechanisation poses serious challenges to the overall development of the agriculture sector, especially the crops sub-sector. It has rendered the vision of a modernised agriculture to remain just a vision.

The sectors’ contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country could continue to decline if nothing is done to mechanise the sector.  

A major effect of the inadequate mechanisation services is the increased drudgery in farming. The amount of physical strength required for farming comes with all kinds of negative effect on farmers. Some of these negative effects could lead to other health implications such as body pains, aches and even death.

Also, the sector remains unattractive to the youth. This should be a cause for concern as there is an increasing aged-farmer population in Ghana. This does not augur well for the future of farming.

High production cost is yet another challenge of the low mechanisation. The cost of hiring manual labour is high compared to the use of mechanisation services. The cost of production could be reduced if farmers had access to mechanisation services.

Low production is another challenge with respect to the inadequacy of mechanisation services. Farmers’ capacity to produce more is reduced as most of them lack basic equipment to ramp up their production.

This comes with other negative consequences such as low incomes, food insecurity, high food prices among others.

Recommendation and way forward
The first step towards improving mechanisation is strengthening farmer groups to empower them to acquire farm implements. As a group, it will be easier for them to acquire such implements such as tractors, reapers, power tillers, threshers and milling machines among others, and better schemes put in place for recovery.

The second is quality data for mechanisation purpose. It’s important to know the type of soil, the depth of the topsoil, the acreage, the farm size, the type of crop, the locations among others for targeting. This is important for any policy decisions in the purchase and allocation of tractors.

Assembly of Tractors in the medium to long term could be a more sustainable way of addressing the shortfall in mechanisation service delivery in the country. Assembly plants could be located at vantage points across the country for the purpose of meeting local demand.

Refresher and ongoing trainings could be organised for operators on a yearly basis to make them more skilled in operating these implements.

Finally, a strong Private Sector participation is required. Government alone cannot do it. But with the right policy environment, it can ensure that farmers are well serviced. Private sector operators could be engaged by government to scale up their services to underserved communities.

A strong public private partnership would go a long way to ensure that no one is left behind in the process.

Conclusion
The hoe has long been used for farming purposes for centuries. To be able to transform farming from subsistence to business requires strong mechanisation. COVID-19 pandemic has shown the need for the country to work towards achieving food sufficiency, and the hoe certainly is not the tool to lead in this process.

Its place is the museum, and should give way to the modernisation of agriculture through mechanisation.

The writer is Policy Advocate and Consultant in Agriculture and Trade Services
email: wullingdool@gmail.com