Agricultural Tools

There are a number of appropriate technology principles that specifically concern agricultural tools. Such tools should be produced within the country, in part simply because of the large numbers involved. They must be repairable at the local level. With much of agriculture characterized by short intense periods of activity, farmers cannot afford delays caused by equipment failures.

The FAO book Farm Implements for Arid and Tropical Regions includes a list of important general principles for appropriate agricultural tools, some of which go beyond the general criteria for appropriate technology.

“Such tools should be:

a) adapted to allow efficient and speedy work with the minimum of fatigue;

b) not injurious to man or animal;

c) of simple design, so that they can be made locally;

d) light in weight, for easy transportation (there are also considerable advantages when threshers, winnowers, and machines such as coffee hullers can be easily moved to where they are needed;

e) ready for immediate use without loss of time for preparatory adjustments;

f) made of easily available materials.”

Appropriate agricultural tools and equipment should contribute to the broad objective of increasing the viability of the small farm. Where small farmers are currently employing traditional technologies that are inefficient, they often cannot improve this technology because of the leap in scale and capital cost to commercially available equipment. It is therefore the goal of intermediate technology proponents to help fill this gap with good quality tools and equipment that are affordable and suited to the scale of operations of the small farmers.

There is a tendency for equipment development and commercial firms to concentrate their energies on tools that are affordable only to the wealthier farmers. This happens in part because of a focus on what technically could be done, without attention to financial constraints faced by the typical small farmer. Contributing factors include the inappropriate application of industrialized, extensive farming strategies to small intensive farming communities, and the failure to include the small farmer in the process of identifying helpful new technologies that can truly fit into the existing farming system. The result is usually either outright failure of innovations to attract interest or the consolidation of landholdings by wealthier farmers taking advantage of the technology newly available. The position of tenant farmer may become worse, and that of small farmer in general is not improved. Appropriate technology advocates must be careful to avoid repeating these mistakes.

The degree of concentration of land ownership is a key factor in determining if there are opportunities available for appropriate technology strategies in a community. Agricultural technologies developed with and for the smallest farmer can certainly strengthen the viability of their farms. But if most families have no land at all, land reform and the establishment of rural industries may be far more important steps in a positive community development program than the improvement of agricultural tools and equipment.

In most of Asia and much of Latin America, farms are quite small. Under these conditions, most mechanized equipment will not increase the amount of food produced, but will only decrease the amount of labor required. Productivity per acre or hectare may in fact decline if these large tools require extra space to maneuver and wide lanes to drive or roll over. The appropriate tools under such circumstances, even if supported by unlimited resources, would be very different than those used in the United States, where the amount of cultivated land per capita is relatively large.

From the national perspective, support for communities of small farms should bring significant benefits. Whereas it has been widely assumed that only the large farm could efficiently increase national food production in the struggle against hunger, mounting evidence from many countries indicates that the small farm has higher yields per acre and plays a crucial role in the distribution of food. Small farms also make the best use of national capital resources:

“To maintain … a rational growth of capital in a low-income economy, small farms are better suited than large ones, for the small farmers do not experience the same pressure to substitute capital for labor; no one wants to mechanize himself out of a job.” (Folke Dovring, in Agricultural Technology for Developing Nations).

People interested in improving local agricultural equipment should be looking for technologies that accomplish one or more of the following:

1) Remove labor bottlenecks in the agricultural calendar that are limiting production (e.g., short periods of time when all available labor is fully employed, such as during planting or harvesting).

2) Replace or speed up activities that are extremely inefficient in the use of time (e.g., traditional hand-milling). This can free time for more productive activities.

3) Increase the productivity of land (e.g., with irrigation weeding, natural fertilizers)

The effectiveness of efforts to create relevant new tools can be increased by.concentrating on some key agricultural activities. Irrigation is the biggest single factor in increasing crop yields. The successful widespread use of hand pumps for small-plot irrigation in Bangladesh is a very interesting development. Water-conserving irrigation methods in arid lands have similar potential benefits. Animal-drawn plows, cultivators and carts tend to satisfy the equipment needs of small farmers using both intensive and extensive techniques. Good quality hand tools should not be overlooked. Equipment that helps to conserve expensive fertilizers and pesticides will reduce cash costs and have beneficial environmental effects. Greenhouses can conserve water, and in temperate climates, they offer an early start on the growing season. Crop processing equipment, including threshers and mills, can reduce losses caused by traditional techniques and save much low-productivity labor time. Very small-scale equipment of this kind could allow the small farmer to retain full crop production instead of paying 10% or more to the mill owner. Crop storage is a prime area for improvement as a significant percentage of food produced on small farms may be lost due to poor drying and storage. Low-cost, small-scale storage bins are particularly promising (see CROP DRYING AND STORAGE chapter). In many areas it is difficult to move agricultural inputs to the farm, harvested crops from the fields to storage, and surpluses from the farms to markets. Appropriate transportation technologies are thus of great importance to the farmer (see TRANSPORTATION chapter).

Many of the books in this chapter make recommendations as to the kinds of agricultural tools and equipment most needed by small farmers in developing countries. Encyclopedic listings of commercially available equipment are contained in Tools for Agriculture and two other books. These and the books documenting older small-scale equipment contain a wealth of ideas that may stimulate the imagination of readers. Rural Africa Development Project describes a method of identifying labor bottlenecks in the agricultural calendar.

A group of excellent books on the use of draft animals are reviewed. Animal-drawn equipment, carts, harnesses, and draft animal training techniques are well-covered in these comprehensive volumes.

Solar photovoltaic irrigation pumps are discussed in several entries, including information on cost and output. (Hand and foot-operated pumps for irrigation have made an impact in some countries such as Bangladesh; these pumps are covered in the WATER SUPPLY chapter. Wind-powered irrigation pumps are to be found in the ENERGY: WIND chapter.)

On North American family farms, the partner is often expected to act as a mechanic and handy-person during daily farming activities. The well-equipped farm workshop and multiple skills have continued to play a powerful role in generating farm equipment innovations. Mechanics in Agriculture is a text for vocational courses teaching the skills commonly required on these farms.

A large number of small engines are used in the South for power tillers, irrigation pumps, crop processing and other applications. The two books on small engines should be helpful references for maintenance and repair of many of these power units.

Most of the remaining entries are plans for threshers, winnowers, corn shellers and so forth, all of them hand or foot-operated, that can be produced in small workshops by local craftspeople.