Stock-taking for baseline understanding of farm machinery offerings and service provider models in Kenya and Cameroon (AoW6)

Demo, P.; Nyawade, S.; Fornkwa Yaya, V.; Borus, D.; Kaguongo, W.; Chemjor, H.; Kimani, A.; Odhiam, J.; Kreuze, Jan F.

Stock-taking for baseline understanding of farm machinery offerings and service provider models in Kenya and Cameroon (AoW6)

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Descripción

The Area of Work 6 (AoW6) of the Sustainable Farming Science Program of CGIAR has ambition to impact over one million additional smallholders in targeted countries and provide them with access to scale-appropriate mechanization options, to reap benefit to improve labor productivity by 25%. As part of the transition from the Excellence in Agronomy initiative to Sustainable Farming Science, some priorities were established, including work on a global level and country specific studies and interventions. The activity envisioned by CIP in 2025 was to contribute through a baseline study, in producing knowledge product on the status of mechanization in potato farming systems in Kenya and Cameroon. In Kenya as well as in Cameroon, there is huge agricultural mechanization gap especially for small and medium scale farm enterprises. Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of both Cameroon and Kenya. In the case of Cameroon, agriculture contributed approximately 20% of the country’s GDP in 2024, supporting food self-sufficiency and employing more than 60% of the active population. Smallholder farmers constitute a greater majority of the agriculture sector, engaging both in crop and livestock production, with women constituting about 70% of the rural work force. They produce almost 90% of food crops and only represent 3% of the industrial agricultural sector. This hinders rural development, which is essential for the achievement of the development goals laid down (MINADER 2020). Some farmers carry out farming as a main activity to sustain their livelihoods, while others do it as a secondary activity. Those that practice it as a main activity are organized as individuals or constituted in groups or associations with a common interest such as Common Initiative Groups (CIGs), Cooperatives, etc. (Ngu et al., 2020). However, the agricultural sector in Cameroon still relies mostly on manual labor for most farm operations (similar context in Kenya). These activities are always strenuous and time consuming, this could be referred to as “drudgery” in agriculture (Bhooshan et al., 2024). According to Ngu et al. (2019), 65% of farming activities in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) are done manually, 25% by animal power, and only 10% by machine power. The authors attribute this low level of mechanization to population growth, land scarcity, climate change degrading ecosystems, under investment in agricultural research, infrastructure, and technology. The low level of agricultural mechanization in Cameroon and other countries in SSA is still a thorny problem to be solved. According to Daum (2022), African agrifood systems are the least mechanized in the world, though farming systems are evolving leading to mechanization in some areas. The same author further states that, while African farming systems are characterized by limited mechanization in the form of tractors and power tillers, animal traction is widespread in some countries. Ngu et al. (2019) observed that in Cameroon, there is 0.1 tractor available for 1000 ha compared for example to Algeria 11.4 tractors for 1000 ha. Hand tools like hoes and machetes are highly dominating in most farming systems with approximately 92% in small-scale farming and 72% in large-scale farming and agricultural processing industries. Animal traction is practiced mainly in certain areas, about 13% in the Far North, North, Adamawa regions and 2% in the North-West region (FAO, 2011).