Technology transfer and agricultural mechanization in Tanzania: institutional adjustments to accommodate emerging economy innovations

ABSTRACT

Recent economic growth in Tanzania has been biased towards industry and services, denying farmers potential distributional benefits. Correcting this anomaly requires in part appropriate technologies to raise agricultural productivity. Attempts to either develop local tools or import advanced country technologies had limited benefits. Recent studies suggest that for poor producers in Tanzania, mechanization technologies from emerging economies are more appropriate in relation to their production characteristics. However, being locked-in advanced country technologies means both market and non-market institutions responsible for mechanization technology transfer in Tanzania have evolved to suite machines from the EU, Japan and USA. To accommodate the new market dynamic, where attention is shifting to emerging economies, modifications to the current technology transfer infrastructure are required. Using firm, farm and government level data on importation, distribution, usage and maintenance of tractors in Tanzania, this paper argues that the potential benefits of emerging economy tractors can be greatly enhanced if calculated attempts are made to modify the existing technology transfer and diffusion process.

KEYWORDS:

• Mechanization
• technology transfer
• emerging economies
• Tanzania

Acknowledgments

I thank the Editors, two anonymous reviewers, Raphael Kaplinsky, Rebecca Hanlin, Joseph Kizulwa, Richmond Atta-Ankomah, David Botchie, George Owusu, Mike Morris, Jacob Salisu, Felix Temu and Jenny Wright. I also acknowledge financial support from The Open University, University of Ghana and Mzumbe University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For example, it takes an average man 12 days of 5 hours of intensive work to plough 1 acre with a hand hoe. For the same parcel of land, it takes a pair of oxen with two operators two days of 5 hours’ work each. When a power tiller is employed for the same assignment, it takes an average of 3.5 hours with one man. The average tractor ploughs an acre within an hour with one operator (Key informant interview with a mechanisation officer in Tanzania, 2012).

2. Assuming that under our present objective of improving productivity, hand hoe and oxen ploughs are not promising enough.

3. In the same vein the intersection of MM and EE which represents machines which combine characteristics of the two sources will also have varying impacts on output, income, employment and skills.

4. Field interviews with mechanisation experts in Dar es Salaam, 2012