Tractors can change farming in good ways and bad: lessons from four African countries

Insights from 87 villages reveal transformative power of agricultural mechanisation, but there are challenges too — like soil erosion, …

Nut reaper

Speedy destruction

The use of heavy tractors leads to reduced crop production

Time to redress

The needs of the small farmer require attention: small tractors or animal power? Both?

65 million draught animals

What runs the small farming economy?

Foreign influence

Instead of designing a low-priced indigenous tractor, industry copies models used abroad

Disconnect

Today, it is accepted that farm mechanisation is an unavoidable imperative. For productivity must be increased. But -- given the majority of …