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Global Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization: efficiency, inclusiveness, and resilience

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in Blogs.

CIMMYT participated in the inaugural Global Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from September 27-29, 2023. The gathering provided space for focused dialogues to prioritize actions and strengthen technical networks for sustainable development of agricultural mechanization.

Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT director general, presented a keynote address on September 27 regarding climate change and mechanization. As a global thought leader and change agent for climate resilient, sustainable and inclusive agricultural development, CIMMYT has many specific initiatives centered on mechanization for facilitating machine innovations and scaling-up improved farming practices for sustainability and farmer competitiveness.

Bram Govaerts delivered a keynote address. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Collaboration is a hallmark of CIMMYT’s endeavors in mechanization, including a strong partnership with local governments across Latin America, Africa and Asia, and international cooperation agencies, supporting the Green Innovations Centers installed by GIZ-BMZ and working on accelerated delivery models together with USAID, in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, to name only a few. Further, local value chain actor engagement is crucial and necessary in this work to connect farmers with viable solutions.

CIMMYT has a long history of leading projects aimed at mechanizing the agricultural efforts of smallholder farmers, including the successful MasAgro Productor in Mexico and FACASI (farm mechanization and conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification) in East and South Africa. At present, the Harnessing Appropriate-Scale Farm Mechanization in Zimbabwe (HAFIZ) project is working towards to improve access to mechanization and reduce labor drudgery while stimulating the adoption of climate-smart/sustainable intensification technologies. The project engages deeply with the private sector in Zimbabwe and South Africa to ensure long-term efficacy.

The Scaling Out Small Mechanization in the Ethiopian Highlands project was active from 2017 to 2022 and increased access for smallholder farmers to planting and harvesting machines. Farmers using two-wheel tractors furnished by the project reduced the time needed to establish a wheat crop from 100 hours per hectare to fewer than 10 hours. CIMMYT’s work was in partnership with the Africa-RISING program led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Ethiopia.

“At CIMMYT, we work knowing that mechanization is a system, not only a technology,” said Govaerts. “Sustainable mechanization efforts require infrastructure like delivery networks, spare parts and capacity development. Working with local partners is the best way to ensure that any mechanization effort reaches the right people with the right support.”

Read these stories about CIMMYT’s efforts to support equal access to agricultural mechanization and scaling up within local contexts.

One-minute science: Mechanization for agriculture

Mechanization is a process of introducing technology or farm equipment to increase field efficiency. CIMMYT’s mechanization work is context specific, to help farmers have access to the appropriate tools that are new, smart and ideal for their unique farming conditions.

New generation of farmers adopts mechanization, making farming more productive and profitable

Working with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), CIMMYT is leading mechanization efforts in Northern India. Combined with sustainable agriculture, the next generation of farmers now have access to tractors, seeders and other tools that are increasing yield and reducing back-breaking labor.

Gangesh Pathak with his father at the custom hiring center which provides custom hiring services to smallholder farmers in the region. (Photo: Vijay K. Srivastava/CIMMYT)

A promising partnership

The delivery of row seeders from India to Benin demonstrates a new path to sustainable South-South business relationships. Developed in India in an iterative design process with farmers, portable row seeders have been a great success. Working with GIC, CIMMYT facilitated a technology and materiel transfer of the portable row seeders to Benin.

A farmer pulls a row seeder in Benin, West Africa. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Solar powered dryers boost peanut production in Togo

Peanuts thrive as a crop in Togo and other West Africa countries, but post-harvest is threatened by aflatoxins, so the entire crop needs to dry. Traditionally, farmers, often women, have dried the peanuts in the open air, subject to weather and other pests. However, CIMMYT, working with GIC, has introduced solar-powered dryers, which speeds up the drying process by a factor of four.

Smallholding peanut farmers Aicha Gaba and Aïssetou Koura lay peanuts into a solar dryer in Koumonde, Togo. (Photo: Laré B. Penn/University of Lome)

A business model for mechanization is providing hope in Burkina Faso

Working with partners in Burkina Faso, CIMMYT is facilitating smallholder mechanization with a model of cascading effects: one farmer mechanizing can then use their skills and eqBMZuipment to help their neighbors, leading to community-wide benefits.

Pinnot Karwizi fills a mechanized sheller with dried maize cobs. (Photo: Matthew O’Leary/CIMMYT)

Visit our mechanization page to read stories about ongoing mechanization initiatives.

Ethiopian machines for Ethiopian farmers

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on . Posted in News.

Techno-Nejat owner Usman Abdella, operations manager Ali Mussa, and GIZ project manager Ralf Barthelmes with a recently completed seed cleaner at Techno-Nejat workshop in Adama, Ethiopia. (Photo: Adane Firde)

In many sub-Saharan countries, including Ethiopia, smallholder farmers of legume, wheat, and maize struggle to maintain their own food security, produce higher incomes, and promote economic growth and jobs in agricultural communities.

As farmers, fabricators, and aid workers collaborate to move forward on this problem, innovative solutions are moving out into the field – and generating new ideas across the continent.

Where are machines for small farmers?

Machines tailored to local needs and conditions can often make a big difference–but most agricultural technology is designed and produced to meet the requirements of massive, commercial farms. To help close this gap, Green Innovations Centers (GIC) work to connect smallholding farmers with locally produced technology that can transform their business, their family lives, and their local economies.

Launched in 2014 by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s special initiative, ONE WORLD No Hunger, the GIC collaborate with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to increase agricultural mechanization in 14 countries in Africa and two in Asia.

Technician at Techno-Nejat workshop, Adama, Ethiopia. (Photo: Adane Firde)

The need for seed

Informal seed systems, in which farmers save and reuse seed, and exchange low quality seed with other farmers, are prevalent among Ethiopian smallholder farmers. Seed cleaning plays an important role in helping farmers build high-yielding seed development systems by removing seed pods and other chaff, eliminating seeds that are too small or infected, and refining the seeds to a high-quality remainder.

After GIC staff in Ethiopia identified seed cleaning as a critical need for smallholding farmers in the country, researchers set out to develop a solution that was affordable, sustainable, and adaptable to local demands.

Local machines for local farmers

In 2022, GIC Ethiopia partnered with Techno-Nejat Industries in Adama, Ethiopia, to design and produce a first run of mobile seed cleaners for use by smallholding farmers across the country. Techno-Nejat has an established track record in agricultural fabrication and was eager to take on the new collaboration.

In early March, the company completed the initial delivery of eight seed cleaners. The machines process chickpea, soy, wheat, and barley seed with a maximum capacity of 1.5 tons per hour. With wheels and a compact, efficient design, they are also easy to move from one farmer’s property to another. At a cost of US $7,500 and a production time of 55 days, the machines have potential both for expansion within Ethiopia and scaling up for export.

Mr. Zogo, owner of Techno Agro Industrie in Benin, with Ali Mussa, Adama, Ethiopia. (Photo: Adane Firde)

Seeding future collaboration

Smallholding farmer cooperatives will take delivery of the first eight seed cleaners in the coming weeks. And while Ethiopian farmers are ready to experience the immediate benefits for their operations, this innovation is also showing promise for additional collaboration.

“Through existing GIC networks, we have connected with Techno Agro Industrie, a company manufacturing seed cleaners in Benin,” said Techno-Nejat’s owner Usman Abdella. “We welcome partnership opportunities, and we extend the red carpet,” Usman said.

As funding for GIC’s mechanization effort winds down, this organic, private Ethiopia-Benin partnership holds promise to generate continued benefits of innovation after the project has concluded, fostering South-South collaboration within Africa.

Solar powered dryers boost peanut production in Togo

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on . Posted in Features.

Solar powered peanut dryers in Togo are helping women-run cooperatives reduce their workload and increase their profits.

A number of West African countries have climate and soil well-suited to groundnut cultivation. In the second half of the twentieth century, the region became a world leader in peanut production. In Togo, peanuts do well, but problems with postharvest processing have kept this crop performing well below its potential.

However, the introduction of the solar powered dryers has had a significant positive impact on the production and preservation of a vital crop for the local population.

From peanut stews and sauces that are staples of national cuisine to overseas export of peanut products, there is no shortage of uses for this groundnut in Togo. However, smallholding farmers struggle to preserve their entire crop in large part because of aflatoxins, which thrive when conditions are too moist and ruin peanuts.

“Peanuts are a very perishable commodity and they can spoil if not stored properly for processing,” said Aïssetou Koura, president of the peanut farmer cooperative in Koumonde.

This is particularly true for smallholding peanut farmers, which in Togo includes many women. The established method for drying peanuts is to lay them out in the open air, which is a labor-intensive process that leaves the crop exposed to unexpected rains and contamination by pests. “In the past, we suffered huge losses,” Aïssetou explained.

Aicha Gaba from the N’kani N’kana cooperative works with a solar dryer in Koumonde, Togo. (Photo: Laré B. Penn/University of Lome)

A better way to dry

In 2021, the introduction of solar dryers began to change things dramatically for peanut farmers in cooperatives from Tovegan to Dapaong. In collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Green Innovation Centers for the Agriculture and Food Sector (GIC) in Togo helped a local manufacturer, Guema Concept, develop solar dryer technology for local peanut farmers from plans made by the University of Hohenheim.

Launched in 2014 by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s special initiative One World No Hunger, GIC collaborates with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to increase agricultural mechanization in 14 countries in Africa and two in Asia.

The dryers are equipped with a ventilation system and a power kit that includes solar panels and a battery so they can operate during periods of reduced sunlight. They have a capacity of 12 kilograms and can complete a drying cycle in as little as two hours, which is about one quarter of the time a manual drying cycle takes. Depending on the solar exposure, cooperatives like the one in Koumonde can perform three or four cycles in a day.

“We have found a solution by preserving our products with the solar dryer,” Aïssetou said.

GIC has helped five smallholding farmer cooperatives procure solar dyers across Togo, and more than 50 women farmers are members of these groups whose work is benefitting from this technology.

Farmers like Aicha Gaba are also increasing their profit because the solar dryers allow them to do more work with fewer laborers.

“Our cooperative dries peanuts with only two people via the solar dryer, unlike conventional open drying, which requires five people to spread, turn, monitor and collect the peanuts,” Gaba said.

“This process reduces the workers’ wages and then saves us the money of three workers, which is a good thing for us.”

The new technology is producing better peanuts thanks to consistent moisture and temperature levels and faster processing speeds, said Djéri Bossa, a member of the cooperative in Bassar.

“Thanks to the solar dryers offered by GIC Togo, we can freely dry our products in good conditions,” Bossa explained.

“The products derived from the processing of peanuts are of improved quality, unlike the conventional open-drying method we used.”

All is not sunny

Despite the initial success of the solar dryers, there are challenges that remain for scaling up this innovation. The dyers are quite heavy and, for smallholding women, it can be difficult to maneuver the machines by themselves. At the same time, farmers say that – even with the greater volume the dryers have helped them achieve – they would still like a higher-capacity machine.

But even with the need for lighter, harder-working dryers, there is enormous potential for this innovation to spread to new areas, bring additional production and income to smallholding farmers (including many women), and help make groundnuts a bigger piece of the economic pie in Togo.

Cover photo: Smallholding peanut farmers Aicha Gaba and Aïssetou Koura lay peanuts into a solar dryer in Koumonde, Togo. (Photo: Laré B. Penn/University of Lome)

Thank you to our partners, Laré B. Penn (University of Lomé) and Johanna Steinkuehler (GIZ Togo).

Staple commodities: Country can save $1.3bn annually by developing efficient storage system

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on . Posted in In the media.

Farmers in Pakistan could save up to $1.3 billion each year in post-harvest losses with the development of an efficient storage system.

Research shows that inefficient storage is the main cause of staple commodity losses in the country. Despite producing 27 million tons of wheat annually worth $7.4 billion, there is less than 6 million tons of storage capacity available; around 10% of the surplus wheat is lost at a value of $740 million due to the use of unregulated conditions.

With the ability to store their commodity for an extra two or three months, farmers can increase their income by between 20 to 40 percent. Preserving the crops that have already been produced will also pass on a saving of between 15 to 20 percent to end consumers.

Hermetic technology developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the University of Hohenheim offers a potential storage solution by protecting the commodity from the ambient environment.

Read the original article: Staple commodities: Country can save $1.3bn annually by developing efficient storage system

Tropically Adapted Inducer Lines (TAIL)

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Doubled Haploid (DH) technology reduces the time required to develop homozygous maize lines to eight to thirteen months, instead of three to seven years using more traditional inbreeding methods. This technology also results in 100% homozygous lines that are most suitable for selection and breeding, compared to traditional inbreeding with varying levels of heterozygosity. Use of DH lines in maize breeding offers several genetic, economic, and logistical advantages over conventional inbred lines. Reduced time and increased precision in selection help breeders increase their rate of genetic gain: the rate at which the genetic potential of a crop increases in yield over time.

To enable the public and private sector maize breeding programs in the tropical/subtropical agro-ecologies to adopt doubled haploid technology, CIMMYT and the University of Hohenheim together developed the first-generation tropically adapted haploid inducer lines (TAILs) and stated distributing them to interested partners in 2013.

Second-generation TAILs (CIM2GTAILs) with improved haploid induction rates (~8-15%), better agronomic performance in terms of plant vigor, synchrony with tropical source populations, better standability, and resistance to important tropical foliar diseases and ear rots, were developed by CIMMYT and made available to the partners from 2016. Haploid inducer hybrids developed using these lines exhibit greater heterosis for plant vigor and pollen production while maintaining similar haploid induction rates as the parents; these are well-suited for open pollinations with source populations in isolation nurseries.

Interested partners may request a license to obtain seed of these CIM2GTAILs along with authorization for use of these specialized lines in their own breeding programs.

The service is rendered in India, Kenya and Mexico.

For women in Ivory Coast, processing cassava no longer has to be a grind

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on . Posted in Features.

Attieke is the national dish of Ivory Coast. Served with fried fish or a vegetable stew, this tangy, fermented side is the heart and soul of Ivorian cuisine. And because it’s made from cassava, attieke is gluten free. So, in addition to its status as an iconic food of hospitality from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro, attieke has the potential to catch on in distant locales.

Producing attieke is complicated—transforming tubers in the ground into a delicious bowl of couscous-like cassava involves harvesting, peeling, grinding, fermenting, pressing, and effectively storing the processed crop. And in Ivory Coast, this work is traditionally performed almost entirely by women.

A cooperative member processes cassava using a manual grinder. (Photo: Sylvanus Odjo/CIMMYT)

A grueling process

Traditional methods for processing cassava, however, are very slow and extremely laborious. “We had to use a wooden plank with nails [to grind cassava]”, said N’Zouako Akissi Benedicte, president of the local agricultural cooperative in Mahounou, Nanafoue, about 30 kilometers from the capital, Yamoussoukro. To remove the liquid from the ground cassava, Ivorian women used “a kind of screw press” that required so much strength that “it caused us pain in the chest.”

In addition to being painful and grueling, these manual methods are terribly inefficient, generating about 30 kilograms of product per hour. Benedicte said a worker could process very little cassava in a day’s work using this traditional approach. Limited physically by this hard manual labor and struggling to generate enough income to establish financial independence, women working in cassava production in Ivory Coast face difficult challenges.

Hydraulic cassava press. (Photo: Sylvanus Odjo/CIMMYT)

Lightening the load

Three years ago, things started to change for Benedicte and other women working in cassava production in her area. At that time, her cooperative partnered with the Green Innovation Centers for the Agriculture and Food Sector (GIC) of Ivory Coast to receive training to use hydraulic-powered cassava grinders and presses. These machines, which GIC helped design and adapt for the climate and cultural context of Ivory Coast, promised to significantly increase speed of production while making all aspects of cassava work more accessible to women. For instance, the grinding capacity of the equipment is around 600 kg/hr.

Launched in 2014 by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s special initiative, ONE WORLD no hunger, GIC collaborates with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to increase agricultural mechanization in 14 countries in Africa and two in Asia.

Beyond helping Benedicte’s cooperative finance the purchase of the new machines and providing instruction in their use, GIC offered the agricultural cooperative a broad range of seminars on topics including selecting seed varieties, soil preparation, processing, and commercialization. This comprehensive approach set the women of Mahounou, Nanafoue up for success.

Gas powered mechanical cassava grinder in Mahounou, Ivory Coast. (Photo: Sylvanus Odjo/CIMMYT)

A message for my sisters

For Benedicte, the new grinder and press are making a huge difference. “The press with the hydraulic system is very efficient and we no longer need to use so much effort to remove the juice,” she said. According to Benedicte, workers in the cooperative are now processing up 1,000% more cassava per day and are only limited by the availability of raw material.

Better yield is also generating financial improvements for these women. “A woman who is working can buy her own machine and earn money that can be used for the education of her children,” Benedicte said. “I have a message for my sisters: a woman cannot solely depend on her husband and expect him to provide everything.”

GIC is working with 32 other groups like Benedicte in Ivory Coast, and the mechanization program has impacted the work of 1,000 women so far.

Taking the next step

There are still hurdles to overcome. In Mahounou, women producing cassava are relying on men to ignite the machines, and when a grinder or a press breaks down, it can be difficult to find spare parts. Benedicte believes electric machines could help solve both problems and take their business to the next level. “We would like to increase our production and sell it at an international level,” she said. “We would like to have a small processing unit here for women that could be used to produce high quality products for the international markets.”

GIC also has plans for a technology transfer that could reproduce this successful program in Malawi. Ivorian staff are collaborating with colleagues there to develop a cassava grinder and press for the Malawian context.

For Benedicte, there is more than food and income at stake in the success of these efforts. “It is important to be autonomous in taking charge of our own expenses,” she said. “This is being a woman. So, please, I invite my sisters to work.”

Cover photo: N’Zouako Akissi Benedicte, president of the local agricultural cooperative, with cooperative members and mechanical cassava grinders. (Photo: Sylvanus Odjo/CIMMYT)

Opening the door to commercial fodder production

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on . Posted in Features.

The paired challenges of population growth and climate change have put smallholder farmers in Zambia in a squeeze. In the Southern Province, the center of agricultural production for the nation, smallholder dairy farmers struggle to increase their production of fodder to commercially viable levels in the face of a long dry season that climate change is intensifying.

Smallholder farmers looking to support their families, enhance the local food supply, and sustain economic growth in their areas are at a distinct disadvantage because agriculture in Zambia is dominated by massive commercial operations with plentiful capital, large tracts of land, and expensive machinery, with most of their output marked for export.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is partnering with the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the University of Hohenheim to identify key barriers and sustainable pathways to smallholder farmer success through a mechanization working group. This work is being carried out through the global initiative One World No Hunger, which launched Green Innovation Centers for the Agriculture and Food Sector (GIC) in 15 member countries in 2014.

“Mechanization is a critical aspect of responding to these problems and the core business of the GIC is to develop knowledge,” said Chimuka Mulowa, a GIC cooperative development advisor based in Choma, Zambia. “Our efforts provide training to smallholder farmers with a focus on adaptive mechanization as a critical ingredient in a holistic approach. Projects in the past have purchased equipment, but we integrate knowledge with existing infrastructure.”

Smallholder homestead with irrigation and fencing to protect developed pasture, Namwala, Southern Province, Zambia. (Photo: Vuyo Maphango)

In Zambia, the GIC works with 22 cooperatives to reach 10,000 small-scale farmers with training sessions on fencing land to grow grass, climate smart breeding, irrigation, and more. The GIC has reached their training goal, but implementation of new practices has been more difficult, with only about half the farmers adopting what they have learned so far.

To better understand the challenges smallholder farmers face in Zambia, Mulowa and the GIC partnered with researcher Vuyo Maphango, who was completing his master’s degree in agricultural economics at the University of Hohenheim under the supervision of Lennart Woltering, a senior scientist at CIMMYT. Woltering developed a tool called Scaling Scan which analyzes barriers to growth for successful innovations in the pilot stage and brings focus to key ingredients for expansion.

Mulowa and Maphango used Scaling Scan to assess the progress of the GIC efforts in Zambia. As they expected, for smallholder farmers trying to get into commercial fodder production, financing was a challenge. At $35,000 USD for a machinery like hay balers used once per year, it can take a farmer up to a decade to recoup such an investment. But Scaling Scan also identified surprising challenges, such as a lack of collaboration and uneven dissemination of knowledge and skills.

Tractor carrying hay bales, Choma, Southern Province, Zambia. (Photo: Vuyo Maphango)

“There was a lot of progress coming out of the Scaling Scan process,” Maphango said. “Growing the cooperatives of farmers is a critical GIC focus now, and this helps with the finance issues as well. Where farmers can’t afford to buy or develop high-quality seed, they can come together, share which seeds are working best for them, and help each other adopt best practices. Staying close as a cooperative also gives farmers stronger bargaining power with the ability to pool together finances.”

More affordable equipment will also help. Smaller, less expensive choppers and chuff cutters ($1500-2000 USD) are already available for silage production, but there is not a well-established tradition of employing silage production in Zambia, and farmers there have struggled to adopt it. Similar machines are making their way onto the market for fodder production and will require farmers to develop a new set of technical skills.

Mulowa and Maphango are also rethinking approaches to training. As an incentive, non-government organizations (NGOs) often pay participants for their time when they attend training sessions, but government ministries can’t sustain this practice beyond the end of a project due to lack of funding. For a deeper level of skill and knowledge development, GIC wants to help farmers see the benefit of training as providing its own incentive–continuing professional education will pay off, both in terms of better agricultural and business practices, and better financial outcomes. The key to this transition is results. When farmers see their yield improving because of skills and practices they developed in training, they will be hungry for more.

Success, for Zambian smallholders, is a door that is opening slowly but surely. “Early adopters are making progress,” Maphango said. “Some are growing their own grass, others are fencing their land and developing irrigation.” As these practices take root, and farmers share victories with cooperative members; the value of ongoing training becomes clear, and the door may open further for others to walk through.

Cover photo: Hay bales on a commercial farm, Chisamba, Central Province, Zambia. (Photo: Vuyo Maphango)

In Burkina Faso, a business model for mechanization is providing hope

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on . Posted in Features.

Ouattara Ali grows rice and maize on a small parcel of land in a village on the outskirts of Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second-largest city.

In the eight years since he began farming, he has faced significant challenges because he depends on traditional practices. Other smallholders in the community are in a similar situation, which limits their ability to realize greater prosperity.

A steady trickle of young adults is leaving the area to find work in the city as an alternative to the difficulty of trying to make ends meet on limited hectarage, coping with erratic harvests and with no guarantee of long-term financial stability.

This story is not unique to Ali and his community – it is familiar across Burkina Faso and other nations where the problems of food security, reliable employment, and dependable income limit economic development in rural areas.

Mechanization as a business

To help communities tackle these challenges, in 2014 Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) created the special initiative One World No Hunger, which launched Green Innovation Centers for the Agriculture and Food Sector (GIC) in 14 countries in Africa and two in Asia. In Burkina Faso, the GIC focuses primarily on the sesame and rice value chains in the Hauts-Bassins, Cascades, Boucle du Mouhoun, and Sud-Ouest regions.

These initiatives include the introduction of mechanized agricultural practices that can increase yields of maize, rice, and other crops. In connection with GIC, farmers like Ali have used machines across the full agricultural value chain – from seed development to post-harvest – to improve their own crop yields. Mechanization has also enabled them to offer their services for hire to other farmers in the area.

Mechanization is a significant economic driver for boosting development of farm areas, but to achieve sustainable success and maximize the ability to bring transformative change to communities, business model development must be a critical focus area.

One of Ouattra Ali’s two-wheel tractors that he uses to provide machinery hire services to nearby farmers. (Credit: Rabe Yahaya/GIZ)

In August, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, collaborated with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Germany’s University of Hohenheim to host a webinar on business models for agricultural mechanization projects. Joining the conversation were 48 participants from countries including Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Benin, and Vietnam.

During the webinar, FAO Senior Consultant Karim Houmy presented research on business models from two case studies of agricultural mechanization hire services in sub-Saharan Africa. Houmy found five basic types of business model, each with its own structure, complexity, and requirements, but he also outlined common features that characterize all successful models.

Many models, a few key principles

The basic business model for agricultural mechanization involves a farmer who uses machinery on their own crops, and then subsequently provides the same services to neighboring farmers. This model is probably the simplest and least expensive. Any smallholder who can procure the necessary machinery, parts, and training can launch this small business, generate additional income, and help neighbors increase their yield. This model also has limits, however, as it restricts farmers to a relatively small footprint of clients whose farms are located near the service provider.

At the other end of the scale is an enterprise model where an entrepreneur does not own any farm machinery but uses mobile phones and geographic information system (GIS) technology to connect farmers with service providers. This model provides a much greater geographical scope as well as greater opportunities for growth and innovation. It also adds layers of complexity that require a network of intermediaries – from machinery dealers and mechanics to booking agents – and bank financing.

The more diverse in operational offerings a business model is, the more promise it holds for generating economic growth and food security. This occurs by spreading activity across a wider geographic region, providing yield-increasing services for more farmers, employing more workers, and generating increased demand up and down the supply chain.

In addition to laying out the range of business models in operation today, Houmy identified success factors important for all, including long-term access to financing and local infrastructure, both of which are structural issues that entrepreneurs have less immediate control over. GIC works to address this shortcoming by involving a broad range of stakeholders, including government actors, in addressing issues of sustainability.

Houmy encouraged entrepreneurs to focus on areas like cultivating a skilled staff, building close links with processors and aggregators, and diversifying the services they offer. This sort of business model training can translate into significant improvements on the ground.

Building a business

Life began to change dramatically for Ali when his local agricultural bureau connected him to the GIC in his area.

Through his relationship with GIC, Ali gained access to some basic mechanized farming equipment, including disc plows, harrows, and planters, which revolutionized his work. He now prepares his rice and maize fields more quickly and evenly. He plants them more efficiently and spends less time harvesting while producing equal and sometimes higher yields. To support this transition, GIC provided training in agricultural mechanization, seed production, and financial management.

Initially, Ali sustained an injury while using a harrow and trailer. Thankfully, this did not slow him down for long, he said. He learned how to regularly tighten components of the machine to avoid further injuries and other safety problems.

Soon, Ali began using his machines to provide services to his neighboring farmers as well, helping them with land preparation, transportation, and planting.

Today, 22 local farmers use Ali’s services, and his community is experiencing the benefits. Less time is spent on planting and harvesting while agricultural yields are increasing. Mechanization marked a sharp decline in the drudgery associated with farming tasks, especially for the area’s youth and women.

Ali is thinking about the future by expanding and diversifying. He plans to buy a seeder and a thresher if he can get financing, and he is interested in additional training. He is developing a business plan for a larger enterprise that would be “the farmers’ one-stop shop” for mechanization services in his area. With the profits so far, he has built a house for his wife and two children and bought a small car.

GIC has supported 26 service providers like Ali in Burkina Faso as well as others in Benin, Mali, and Kenya. Over time, the proliferation of sustainable agricultural operations like Ali’s, as well as their growth into more complex and more profitable business networks, holds enormous promise for rural areas where food security, sustainable employment and a baseline of prosperity have been elusive for far too long.

Cover photo: Workers on Ouattra Ali’s farm outside of Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. (Credit: Rabe Yahaya/GIZ)

More than machines

Written by Sarah Fernandes on . Posted in Blogs.

Cooperative farmers receive training on operation of a mobile seed cleaner in Oromia, Ethiopia. (Credit: Dessalegn Molla/GIZ)

It’s a familiar problem in international agricultural development – a project with external funding and support has achieved impressive early results, but the money is running out, the time is growing short, and there’s not a clear plan in place to continue and extend the program’s success.

Over the past seven years, the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) established Green Innovation Centers in 13 countries in Africa and two in Asia, partnering with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to support projects that introduce mechanization in a way that improves long-term food security and prompts economic growth. Now, as the project enters its final two years of funding, GIZ and CIMMYT are focused on ensuring the gains produced by the Green Innovation Centers are not lost.

Like any complex challenge, there’s not just one solution to the sustainability problem – but CIMMYT is working to address a massive question around why pilots fail in agricultural development by implementing a systematic approach to scalability that recognizes the critical importance of context and puts projects on a sustainable path before the money is gone.

Training the trainers

As the Green Innovation Centers enter a crucial, final stage, a CIMMYT-led team recently completed training for seven GIZ staff from Ivory Coast, Togo, Ethiopia, and Zambia, who are now certified to facilitate CIMMYT’s Scaling Scan tool and train others to put agricultural innovations in their home countries on a solid path for growth. The training team included CIMMYT scaling advisor Lennart Woltering, CIMMYT mechanization support specialist Leon Jamann, and students from Germany’s University of Hohenheim and Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University.

The Scaling Scan is a practical tool that helps users set a defined growth ambition, analyze their readiness to scale using ten core ingredients, and identify specific areas that need attention in order to reach the scaling ambition.

The GIZ staff learned to use the Scaling Scan by applying it to early stage innovations in their home countries, ranging from commercial fodder production in the Southern Province of Zambia to seed value chains in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia.

Mohammed, a farmer in Amhara, Ethiopia, with a fistful of wheat on his farm. (Credit: Mulugeta Gebrekidan/GIZ)

What will scale up in Ethiopia?

In Ethiopia, smallholding farmers producing legumes, wheat and maize struggle to increase their yield to a level that can improve food security, generate higher incomes for producers and their families, and promote economic growth and jobs in agricultural communities. To help smallholders develop sustainable solutions, GIZ senior advisor Molla Dessalegn worked with his Green Innovation Center team to brainstorm and launch a range of 20 proposed innovations – from risk mitigation and new contract structures to introduction of new technology – all with the aim of improving agricultural yields.

To date, these innovations have introduced over 200,000 Ethiopian smallholders to new knowledge and practices to improve their output. But with the project exit bearing down, Molla and his team were eager to identify which innovations held the most promise for survival and growth beyond the endpoint. So they put their pilot projects to the test using the Scaling Scan.

The scan involves an intensive, day-long seminar originally designed for in-person delivery, but remote versions have also proved successful as COVID limited global travel. The scan focuses on thorough analysis and scoring of the current state of a pilot project and its potential for growth given the realities of conditions on the ground.

Facilitators lead project managers through evaluation of the ten ingredients required for successful scaling, from finance and collaboration to technology, know-how, and public sector governance. The outcome is a clear data set assessing the scalability of the pilot and directing attention to specific areas where improvement is needed before a project can expect serious growth.

An unexpected outcome

What emerged from the scan surprised Molla. Some of the strategies he saw as most successful in the early stages, such as a contract farming program, scored poorly, whereas the scan identified deployment of mobile seed cleaners as a solution that held particular promise for scalability. These outcomes prompted the team to refocus efforts on this strategy.

About 95 percent of Ethiopian smallholders rely on informal seed systems, either saving and reusing seed or exchanging low quality seed with other farmers. Seed cleaning plays a critical role in helping farmers build a high quality, high yield seed development system. Molla and his team had already worked with smallholder cooperatives in Oromia to distribute three mobile seed cleaners, and they knew these machines were being heavily relied upon by farmers in this region.

The Scaling Scan showed them, among other things, that the successful adoption of the seed cleaners had even more potential – it was an innovation that could be sustained and even expanded by local stakeholders, including the Ministry of Agriculture.

This result prompted Molla to recommend investment in additional mobile seed cleaners – four to serve cooperatives in the Amhara region and a fifth for the West Arsi district in Oromia. These machines are now in operation and helping additional smallholders improve the quality of their seed stock. This initial expansion confirms the Scaling Scan results – and CIMMYT plans to continue supporting this growth with the purchase of another round of seed cleaners.

The Scaling Scan also identified problems with the business model for sustaining the mobile seed cleaners through cooperatives in Ethiopia, and this outcome directed the Green Innovation Centers to partner with a consultant to develop improvements in this area. In this way, one of the most important values of the scan is its ability to guide decision-making.

Scaling up the future

Seed cleaners alone won’t solve every yield problem for Ethiopian farmers, but the scan has now guided the initial implementation – and contextual adaptation – of a new form of agricultural mechanization across two regions of the country, with the promise of more to come.

And there’s more to come from the Scaling Scan as well.

Now that he’s received certification as a trainer, Molla plans to help farmers, officials, and other development workers adopt this rigorous approach to evaluating innovations that show potential. When funding for his project ends in 2024, he will be leaving 300,000 smallholders in Ethiopia with more than machines – he will be leaving them with the knowledge, experience, and practices to make the most of the technological solutions that are improving their yields today and building a more secure future for their communities.

A member of an agricultural mechanization youth association in Ethiopia’s Tigray region fills a two-wheel tractor with water before irrigation. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

The beginning of a beautiful partnership

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Features.

In most developing countries, smallholder farmers are the main source of food production, relying heavily on animal and human power. Women play a significant role in this process — from the early days of land preparation to harvesting. However, the sector not only lacks appropriate technologies — such as storage that could reduce postharvest loss and ultimately maximize both the quality and quantity of the farm produce — but fails to include women in the design and validation of these technologies from the beginning.

“Agricultural outputs can be increased if policy makers and other stakeholders consider mechanization beyond simply more power and tractorization in the field,” says Rabe Yahaya, an agricultural mechanization expert at CIMMYT. “Increases in productivity start from planting all the way to storage and processing, and when women are empowered and included at all levels of the value chain.”

In recent years, mechanization has become a hot topic, strongly supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Under the commission of BMZ, the German development agency GIZ set up the Green Innovation Centers (GIC) program, under which the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) supports mechanization projects in 16 countries — 14 in Africa and two in Asia.

As part of the GIC program, a cross-country working group on agricultural mechanization is striving to improve knowledge on mechanization, exchange best practices among country projects and programs, and foster links between members and other mechanization experts. In this context, CIMMYT has facilitated the development of a matchmaking and south-south learning matrix where each country can indicate what experience they need and what they can offer to the others in the working group. CIMMYT has also developed an expert database for GIC so country teams can reach external consultants to get the support they need.

“The Green Innovation Centers have the resources and mandate to really have an impact at scale, and it is great that CIMMYT was asked to bring the latest thinking around sustainable scaling,” says CIMMYT scaling advisor Lennart Woltering. “This is a beautiful partnership where the added value of each partner is very clear, and we hope to forge more of these partnerships with other development organizations so that CIMMYT can do the research in and for development.”

This approach strongly supports organizational capacity development and improves cooperation between the country projects, explains Joachim Stahl, a capacity development expert at CIMMYT. “This is a fantastic opportunity to support GIZ in working with a strategic approach.” Like Woltering and Yahaya, Stahl is a GIZ-CIM integrated expert, whose position at CIMMYT is directly supported through GIZ.

A catalyst for South-South learning and cooperation

Earlier this year, CIMMYT and GIZ jointly organized the mechanization working group’s annual meeting, which focused on finding storage technologies and mechanization solutions that benefit and include women. Held from July 7–10 July, the virtual event brought together around 60 experts and professionals from 20 countries, who shared their experiences and presented the most successful storage solutions that have been accepted by farmers in Africa for their adaptability, innovativeness and cost and that fit best with local realities.

CIMMYT postharvest specialist Sylvanus Odjo outlined how to reduce postharvest losses and improve food security in smallholder farming systems using inert dusts such as silica, detailing how these can be applied to large-scale agriculture and what viable business models could look like. Alongside this and the presentation of Purdue University’s improved crop storage bags, participants had the opportunity to discuss new technologies in detail, asking questions about profitability analysis and the many variables that may slow uptake in the regions where they work.

Harvested maize cobs are exposed to the elements in an open-air storage unit in Ethiopia. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Harvested maize cobs are exposed to the elements in an open-air storage unit in Ethiopia. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

Discussions at the meeting also focused heavily on gender and mechanization – specifically, how women can benefit from mechanized farming and the frameworks available to increase their access to relevant technologies. Modernizing the agricultural sector in developing countries in ways that would benefit both men and women has remained a challenge for many professionals. Many argue that the existing technologies are not gender-sensitive or affordable for women, and in many cases, women are not well informed about the available technologies.

However, gender-sensitive and affordable technologies will support smallholder farmers produce more while saving time and energy. Speaking at a panel discussion, representatives from AfricaRice and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) highlighted the importance of involving women during the design, creation and validation of agricultural solutions to ensure that they are gender-sensitive, inclusive and can be used easily by women. Increasing their engagement with existing business models and developing tailored digital services and trainings will help foster technology adaptation and adoption, releasing women farmers from labor drudgery and postharvest losses while improving livelihoods in rural communities and supporting economic transformation in Africa.

Fostering solutions

By the end of the meeting, participants had identified and developed key work packages both for storage technologies and solutions for engaging women in mechanization. For the former, the new work packages proposed the promotion of national and regional dialogues on postharvest, cross-country testing of various postharvest packages, promotion of renewable energies for power supply in storing systems and cross-country scaling of hermetically sealed bags.

To foster solutions for women in mechanization, participants suggested the promotion and scaling of existing business models such as ‘Woman mechanized agro-service provider cooperative’, piloting and scaling gender-inclusive and climate-smart postharvest technologies for smallholder rice value chain actors in Africa, and the identification and testing of gender-sensitive mechanization technologies aimed at finding appropriate tools or approaches.

Cover image: A member of Dellet – an agricultural mechanization youth association in Ethiopia’s Tigray region – fills a two-wheel tractor with water before irrigation. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)