It is important to appreciate the efforts of farmers every day and anytime we remember that they are the lifesavers who are less celebrated. This is because of the risks involved in production, in addition to the drudgery nature of farming that is being practiced in the developing Countries. This makes farming a more expensive venture as it is a laborious, high risk venture and with low return on investment due to poor productivity. However, it has been noted that to transform the agricultural sector in the developing countries, there is a need to embrace mechanization in addition to the use of improved and quality inputs. It is common knowledge that population increase has exceeded food production in many countries, leading to food insecurity and it has been a great threat to economic growth. Nevertheless, the main solution to poor productivity is the use of mechanization by smallholder farmers who produce a large chunk of our food.
Besides, it is sad that smallholder farmers are still cultivating crops using obsolete and manual methods to carry out major production activities such as weeding, planting, spraying, which requires more labor to carry out. Sadly, the lack of laborers is already a pandemic in the agricultural sector due to rural-urban migration. Therefore, it's very important that smallholder farmers transit from drudgery activities into more productive activities using simple machines that can aid productivity and efficiency. Simple machines such as handheld tractor, rototiller, handheld weeder, power sprayer amongst others. This could be purchased as a group or association to reduce the cost on an individual farmer and could adopt shared usage.
In conclusion, smallholder farmers need to embrace mechanization with the use of simple machines for production and increase efficiency in order to achieve food security. The generation where hoe and cutlass can produce sufficient food has passed, and now is an era where increased productivity is achieved through appropriate knowledge and mechanization as population and demand for food is increasing. No one should be left behind and no farmer should be denied access to use mechanization. Let us support the farmers to make simple machines available in the most remote areas and also develop local capacity to maintain these equipment and at the same time fabricate them locally for the rural markets. We need to act now before it is too late to catch up!
