When: 4 October 2018, 10-11 am EST Presenter: Hiroyuki Takeshima
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Increased use of mechanical power for farming operations has been one of the key aspects of the agricultural and rural transformation and will remain so under the efforts toward achieving the SDGs. Agricultural mechanization in Africa gained significant attention during the 1980s, but many interventions failed due to insufficient demand at the farm level. Since then, the situation has changed. Growing population and demand for food, rising rural wages, improvements in market access have contributed to the growth of demand for mechanization in Africa.
©IFPRI/Guush Berhane Tesfay
In this webinar, we will summarize major lessons about mechanization learned from the South-South knowledge exchange supported by the Policies, Institutions, and Markets CGIAR Research Program. First, we’ll discuss some key messages that have come out of a compilation and synthesis of the mechanization growth experience in Asia and Africa. We will share new research findings on the determinants and impacts of mechanization. We will then talk about our engagement with government officials in Africa and how that helped to facilitate the mindset shift that was necessary before any mechanization development policy reforms could be started. Finally, we will discuss why agricultural mechanization should be seen as an important area for promoting private investment in rural transformation in general.
Hiroyuki Takeshima is a Research Fellow at the Development Strategy and Governance Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Dr. Takeshima has conducted research on market participation, transaction costs, agricultural technology adoption, biodiversity, and political economy of seed policies in Africa south of the Sahara. His recent research also focuses on the linkages between market and climatic risks and farmers’ investment, roles of modern production technologies such as irrigation, mechanization, fertilizer on agricultural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. Hiroyuki earned his PhD in Agricultural and Consumer Economics at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2008. Read more
The presentation was prepared jointly with Dr. Xinshen Diao, Deputy Division Director and a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategy and Governance Division of IFPRI. Dr. Diao co-leads PIM's research flagship Economywide Factors Affecting Agricultural Growth and Rural Transformation. She has extensive experience on managing large research programs and doing research on economic development and growth, intersectoral linkages, regional integration and dynamics, agricultural policies and institutional changes. She has published more than 100 articles in various peer-reviewed economic journals, IFPRI books and monographs, and external book chapters. In recent years, Xinshen has focused on growth and poverty reduction analysis in Africa both at country level in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia and at the regional level including East Africa, West and Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Read more
The PIM webinars aim to share findings of PIM’s research, discuss their application, and get feedback and suggestions from participants. Webinars are conducted by PIM researchers in the form of research seminars. Each webinar is a live event consisting of a presentation (30 min) and a facilitated Q&A session (30 min).
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