| Abstract |
The technology of food and crop production has undergone increasingly rapid change in recent decades. In the industrialized countries, technology based on mechanical power and other advanced inputs has progressively made farming more capital-intensive. In the developing countries, however, this level of agricultural production technology has not been widely adopted and, where it has, results have been variable. Farms in the developing countries are normally small, often consist of fragmented plots and often have poor accessibility for mechanical equipment and the supply of other inputs. Most farmers do not have the capital nor the credit available, for the purchase of advanced power machinery. And where these investment constraints have been overcome, farmers are unable to use the advanced technology economically on the average small-farm unit. Developing countries these days have a greater range of technological options when deciding upon the form and level of agricultural mechanization which is best suited to their development objectives and conditions. In the past, much of the mechanical-power technology introduced has not been technically or economically appropriate for individual ownership by small-scale farmers. Efforts were made to meet the needs and desires of these smaller farmers by scaling down the size of farm machinery. The most successful of these efforts has been the introduction of single-axle tractors or 2WTs (power tillers with matched implements and equipment for use especially in paddy production. Similar efforts to design equipment for upland and rain-fed farming situations is going on in an effort to replicate this experience. |
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