A study has disclosed that agricultural mechanization in Ghana is largely concentrated on tractor services at the expense of small farm tools despite its low budget allocations.

The study found that post-production infrastructure such as processing machinery has been less focused on in the policies and programmes directed at mechanization which has contributed to the rise in post-harvest losses.

A research scientist, Dr Adams Abdulai, while presenting the findings at a validation workshop in Accra indicated that mechanisation is a significant complement to strengthening the agricultural sector.

He emphasized that it was necessary to reduce labour and post-harvest losses and invest in the adoption of mechanisation as it is likely to improve the welfare of women.

“The objective of the study was to investigate the extent to which mechanisation is promoted and implemented in agricultural development ordinances and policies in Ghana at various levels that is, community, district, and national.”

Other policy gaps

Dr Abdulai maintains that there has been a poor implementation of target credit support schemes on mechanisation.

According to him, the policies were largely gender neutral. However, in terms of implementation, males dominate the mechanisation space when it comes to access and ownership.

“We recognised several strengths in the approach to promoting agricultural mechanisation in Ghana – selected commodities based on comparative and competitive advantage. Agricultural mechanisation, even without a formal strategy adopted, is being carried out as an integral part of the national development process.”

He further revealed that agriculture at the heart of the government hence a relatively good investment has been made to improve the sector.

“Because the national policy is to stimulate agriculture-led growth, many complementing policies that enhance agricultural production and productivity were put in place simultaneously. A relatively good infrastructure such as training institutions and human resource in agricultural engineering exists in the country.”

The workshop
The workshop was under the auspices of the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) project, in collaboration with the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI).

Africa RISING is aimed at generating and disseminating technologies for the adoption of smallholder farmers for improved livelihoods.

It is being implemented with several collaborators (farmers, researchers, policy institutions among others) in West Africa (Ghana and Mali), East Africa (Ethiopia and Tanzania) and Southern Africa (Malawi and Zambia).

In the Ghana, the project targets smallholder farmers in the north engaged in crop (maize and cowpea) and livestock (small ruminants) production.

The aim of the workshop was to gather more inputs into the study report and share widely the findings and recommendations of the report for greater policy and institutional support at various levels.