Browsing: Africa’s food production

Preparing a field for planting using a tractor. Africa should embrace mechanisation which includes irrigation systems, food processing and related technologies and equipment to increase agricultural productivity. www.theexchange.africa

With Africa’s population expected to double by 2050, the continent must embrace modern technology to increase productivity.

More than 70 per cent of Africa’s food is grown on smallholder farms with the backbreaking physical labour majorly undertaken by women. The continent’s food production involves the hoe more than it does mechanised labour leading to decreased output.

One thing to note is that mechanisation is not limited to tractors but it also includes irrigation systems, food processing and related technologies and equipment in the agricultural production chain.

Read: COVID-19: Millions of smallholder farmers facing tough times ahead

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), agricultural mechanisation is the application of mechanical technology and increased power to agriculture to enhance the productivity of human labour and often to achieve results well beyond the capacity of human labour.

This includes the use of tractors of various types as well as animal-powered and …