Agricultural mechanization in Ghana: Alternative supply models for tractor hiring services

Xinshen Diao and Hiroyuki Takeshima

Chapter 11 in An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?, 2020, pp 377-400 from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: As in most countries in Africa, agricultural mechanization in Ghana was slow to develop until the 1990s; however, this has changed markedly since the early 2000s. According to the nationally representative Labor Force Survey conducted in 2015/2016, about one third of Ghana’s crop-growing farmers, including smallholders, reported using some form of machinery, mostly tractors for land preparation. Still, policymakers are concerned that mechanization should be proceeding at a faster rate and worry that supply-side issues may be constraining its uptake, especially among smallholders. With this in mind, the government recently started to directly re-engage the promotion of mechanization, devoting public resources to directly subsidize machinery imports and to establish a network of subsidized agricultural mechanization service centers around the country (Diao et al. 2014). Parallel with these government programs is the rapid development of private-sector supply systems, through which an increased number of secondhand tractors were imported and purchased by relatively large-scale farmers. In turn, these farmers provide hiring services to smaller-scale farmers for use mainly in land preparation, harvesting, and threshing. In this chapter, we review recent developments in the uptake of agricultural mechanization in Ghana and the factors driving the growth in farmers’ demand. We then discuss alternative supply models in the country, comparing them with recent government interventions. This leads to our conclusions about appropriate mechanization policies for the future.

Keywords: tractors; supply chains; policies; technology; farmers; urbanization; agriculture; agricultural mechanization; remuneration; rural areas; farming systems; governance; Ghana; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142757

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifpric:9780896293809_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in IFPRI book chapters from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().