The biannual International Commission of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) Agricultural Engineering Conference provides a forum for engineers, scientists and associated professionals to exchange knowledge, information and experience related to new developments in agriculture and biosystems. In parallel UNIDO and FAO organised a special conference (SPC08) on agricultural mechanization and post-harvest technology.

This year's International Conference of Agricultural Engineering
Of the CIGR took place from 8 – 12 July in Valencia, Spain, and was attended by more than one thousand participants. In the parallel conference on “Creating a competitive edge through agricultural mechanisation and post-harvest technology in developing countries” the organisers of the conference, UNIDO and FAO, addressed issues through which farmers in developing countries, especially in Africa, can achieve increased agricultural production and value addition through investment in mechanisation and post-harvest technology.

A total of 13 specialist papers were presented in three technical sessions and their abstracts can be accessed via the conference website (link below) . Some of the principal threads included:

The importance of farm power

Farm power increases in Asia and Latin America have led to substantial improvements in grain production. Farm power in India has reached a level of 1.5 kW/ha, whilst in sub-Saharan Africa the figure is less than 0.2kW/ha. Increasing farm power availability, especially for smallholder farmers is a vital ingredient for improved productivity in the agricultural sector.

Sustainable crop production intensification

Improved production practices are also required. In the developing world 80% of food is produced by the smallholder sector and it is here that sustainable crop production intensification efforts will be most fruitful. At the risk of over-simplifying, we are at the moment too frequently confronted by a situation of poor and declining crop yields, limited capacity to expand the agricultural frontier, the negative impact of climate change, degrading natural capital (especially soils), poor water use efficiency, increasing population pressure and poverty, and rural-urban migration. The solution to improving this situation lies in the development and adoption of ecosystems approaches which increase production whilst conserving natural resources. Conservation agriculture (CA) (direct seeding, maintenance of organic soil cover and rotations of crops and cover crops) can make a huge contribution to improving the present situation; but this requires modification and application of concepts and machines for smallholder CA. A notable example would be locally adapted and manufactured direct planters and seed drills for placing seed and fertilizer at the correct depth in a soil covered with organic mulch.

Local manufacture

Local manufacture involves complex interactions between the manufacturers themselves and other key stakeholders such as: providers of knowledge and innovative ideas such as technical and testing institutions; financial institutions for short and medium term finance; dealer networks; hire service providers, technical and business skills training institutions; mechanical workshop services and, of paramount importance, the farm families themselves.

Mechanisation strategies

African governments have encouraged farmers to use agricultural machinery by means of development programmes and incentive measures. Unfortunately, in spite of some progress, the role of agricultural mechanisation is still below the level expected. There are several reasons for this, particularly the manner in which structural adjustment programmes were implemented in the 1980s when the respective roles of the public and private sectors were not clearly defined. Since this period agricultural mechanisation entered into a vicious circle whereby low farm incomes mean low savings capacity. This leads to low demand for mechanisation services which results in low farm productivity which in turn explains the low farm income achieved. A second vicious circle results from this as low demand for mechanisation services will result in low supply, high unit costs and so even less use by farmers.

This situation needs to be converted into a virtuous circle whereby the supply of mechanisation services at reasonable cost is increased to farmers who will then increase their demand. This will result in improved productivity, incomes and savings resulting in turn in increased demand for services. National mechanisation strategies are designed to improve the supply of mechanisation services to smallholder farmers to achieve the increased productivity that the sector so desperately needs.

Value addition

Sustainable crop production intensification necessarily means increased output and this needs to be stored and processed to reduce wastage and add value. Adding value to agricultural produce is becoming increasingly attractive for farmers and other rural sector entrepreneurs. Value addition through crop processing will usually involve the application of engineering solutions in such areas as crop storage and transport, vegetable processing, milling, dairy and meat product manufacture, and so forth.

Food losses are the result of management decisions taken along the production chain from the field to the table and they can dramatically affect the shelf life and quality of the product. Losses are usually around 50 percent and comprise on-farm losses before, at and after harvest; post harvest losses in storage and transport; processing and distribution losses; and finally losses at the point of consumption.

Conclusion

The clear conclusion drawn from SPC08 was that the application of agricultural and food engineering to farm mechanisation and post harvest technology can have a dramatic impact both on sustainably enhancing agricultural production, and reducing harvest and post harvest losses, and on adding value to agricultural produce along the post harvest processing chain.

More information: CIGR 

Brian Sims & Josef Kienzle, FAO, Rome, Italy