[PDF] Mechanization And The Use Of Labor On Farms eBook

Author : Diao, Xinshen, ed.
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Page : 548 pages
File Size : 27,82 MB
Release : 2020-12-07
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0896293807

GET BOOK

Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Author : David Runsten
Publisher :
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 21,46 MB
Release : 1981
Category : Social Science
ISBN :

GET BOOK

Research report, agricultural mechanization, economic policy of technological change in the agricultural sector, Mexican migrant workers, USA - agrarian structure, historical background to foreign labour utilization, immigration trends, state intervention, structural changes after 1964, case study of tomato harvesting, agricultural policy implications. Bibliography, graphs, statistical tables.

Author : Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher : Food & Agriculture Org.
Page : 150 pages
File Size : 41,23 MB
Release : 2019-03-13
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9251308713

GET BOOK

This framework presents ten interrelated principles/elements to guide Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization in Africa (SAMA). Further, it presents the technical issues to be considered under SAMA and the options to be analysed at the country and sub regional levels. The ten key elements required in a framework for SAMA are as follows: The analysis in the framework calls for a specific approach, involving learning from other parts of the world where significant transformation of the agricultural mechanization sector has already occurred within a three-to-four decade time frame, and developing policies and programmes to realize Africa’s aspirations of Zero Hunger by 2025. This approach entails the identification and prioritization of relevant and interrelated elements to help countries develop strategies and practical development plans that create synergies in line with their agricultural transformation plans. Given the unique characteristics of each country and the diverse needs of Africa due to the ecological heterogeneity and the wide range of farm sizes, the framework avoids being prescriptive.

Author : Barry Price
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 46,87 MB
Release : 2019-07-11
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1000304515

GET BOOK

For more than a decade the trend toward increased mechanization in U.S. agriculture has been the source of farm worker protests, legislative hearings, and lawsuits. (The recent case pitting the University of California’s prestigious agriculture research establishment against Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers is a prominent example of such litigation.) A key question in the controversy is whether federal and state governments should continue to invest more than $1 billion per year in the development of large-scale, capital-intensive technologies known to have significant social costs. Opponents of continued public support for these new technologies argue that they will eliminate thousands of farm jobs when the nation already suffers from a serious unemployment problem; proponents contend that such capital-intensive technologies keep food prices down for consumers while generating the potential for increased wages for farm workers. This book explores both sides of the debate, tracing the history of the mechanization issue and assessing the economic and sociological bases of the opposing positions. Maintaining that present methods of analysis are not adequate for resolving the conflict, Professor Price suggests an alternative approach, highlighted by a detailed case study of the costs and benefits generated by a new harvest technology adopted in the tomato-processing industry in California. He singles out the role of market structure as the most important variable in the distribution of benefits resulting from mechanization. Finally he relates his research findings to policy alternatives concerning farm mechanization in general, as well as to other problems involving technological change.

Author : Karim Houmy
Publisher : Integrated Crop Management
Page : 112 pages
File Size : 24,15 MB
Release : 2013
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN :

GET BOOK

The manual work carried out by farmers and their families is often both arduous and time consuming and in many countries this is a major constraint to increasing agricultural production. Such day-to-day drudgery is a major contributoring factor in the migration of people, particularly the young, from the rural countryside to seek the prospect of a better life in the towns and cities. Farm production can be substantially increased through the use of mechanical technologies which both are labor-saving and directly increase yields and production. This document provides guidelines on the development and formulation of an agricultural mechanization strategy and forms part of FAO's approach on sustainable production intensification.

Author : Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher : Food & Agriculture Org.
Page : 22 pages
File Size : 36,22 MB
Release : 2021-11-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9251353123

GET BOOK

The FAO-IFPRI study, of which this policy brief is a summary, focuses on the use of tractors because they are among the most versatile farm mechanization tools and are universal power sources for all other driven implements and equipment in agriculture, with significant potential to replace animal draught power and human power, including children’s muscle power. Tractor use is typically also the first type of machine-powered equipment in use at lower levels of agricultural development, the context where most child labour is found. Mechanization is mostly assumed to reduce child labour, as it is expected to be labour saving in general. Yet, this is not always the case, as it has also been observed that the use of tractors and other machinery could increase children’s engagement in farm activities. This may be the case if, for instance, their use allows farms to cultivate larger areas, or if it leads to shifting chores of work from hired labor to family workers, e.g. for weeding edges of farmland not reachable by machinery. Evidence has been scant thus far, but the few available studies have mostly lent greater support to the hypothesis that mechanization reduces children’s productive engagement. Most available studies have focused on specific cases and based on scant data. The new FAO-IFPRI study provides a rigorous quantitative assessment for seven developing countries in Asia (India, Nepal and Viet Nam) and sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania) based on comparable farm household survey data.

Author : Takeshima, Hiroyuki
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Page : 36 pages
File Size : 12,77 MB
Release : 2016-12-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN :

GET BOOK

This research was undertaken to better assess the role of mechanization in the future of smallholder farmers in Nepal. It addresses the knowledge gap about whether promoting mechanization that is often complementary to land can effectively support smallholders, particularly in the face of a growing nonfarm sector. Rising rural wages in Nepal have increasingly put pressures on smallholder farmers, who tend to operate labor-intensive farming. Agricultural mechanization through custom hiring of tractor services has recently been considered as an option to mitigate the impact of rising labor costs for smallholders. However, the benefit of agricultural mechanization may still be better captured by exploiting the economies of scale of medium to large farmers rather than smallholders. In the meantime, the Nepal agricultural sector still employs a disproportionate share of workers given its share in the economy, potentially depressing agricultural labor productivity. It is therefore an important policy question whether to (1) continue supporting smallholders through custom-hired tractor services or (2) encourage smallholders to rent their farms out to medium-size or larger farmers, while helping smallholders specialize in the nonfarm sector, where their labor productivity may be higher. Using samples from the Terai zone—one of the agroecological belts in Nepal, largely consisting of lowland plains— from the Nepal Living Standards Survey, we assess whether the benefits of hiring in tractor services are greater among medium to large farmers than among smallholders, and how these benefits may depend on smallholders’ decision to remain in or leave farming. This study also contributes to the impact evaluation literature by showing that jointly assessing the effects of two treatments (whether to adopt custom-hired tractor services and continue farming, or to search for better options and specialize in off-farm activities) can lead to different implications than assessing them separately. Our analyses suggest that the government should continue to promote custom-hired tractor services not only for medium to large farmers but also for smallholders. If, over time, barriers to specializing in nonfarm activities are lowered and more smallholders start leaving farming, mechanization may no longer benefit the remaining smallholders. Support for mechanization can then be focused more on medium to large farmers, while types of support other than mechanization can be devised for the remaining smallholders.