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APPLICATION OF APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY TO BOOST

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION FOR SMALL-HOLDER

FARMERS’ IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

NOVEMBER, 2015.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………....3

2. Current Situation………………………………………………………………………4

3. What is Appropriate Technology……………………………………………………...6

4. Why Appropriate Technology is so important………………………………………...8

5. Why Appropriate Technology is not implemented…………………………………...10

6. The Role of Appropriate Technology…………………………………………………11

7. How Appropriate Technology can be implemented…………………………………..13

8. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….15

9. References…………………………………………………………………………..…17

10. Appendices…………………………………………………………………………….18

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Introduction

The importance of the agricultural sector to national development cannot be overstated as it

accounts for over 40% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP and employs about 70% of the continent’s

population. Nearly 70 percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) live in rural areas,

and rely mainly on agriculture for livelihood security. The sector will continue to engage the

youths, particularly women and children for at least the next 25 years. Agriculture is essential for

inclusive development because it produces food as well as economic wealth for many of the

world’s poorest people-wealth that allows for improved livelihoods through better health care,

education, infrastructure improvements and greater investment in environmentally sound

practices. Growth generated by agriculture is eleven times more effective in reducing poverty

than GDP growth in some other sectors. In fact, many studies have shown that Gross Domestic

Product (GDP) growth in agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as GDP

growth originating outside agriculture.

However, low agricultural productivity in the region keeps this population under constant

pressure, even though investment in agriculture is a proven way to reduce regional poverty.

Climate challenge is also a great risk factor in agricultural development in the region. Rainfall is

scarce in most part of the SSA while in other areas rainfall is concentrated only during the wet

season. Yet much of SSA still remains dependent on rainfall for agricultural sustainability. It

becomes necessary to develop and implement appropriate technologies to support the small-

holder farmers to alleviate poverty and increase household incomes. Agric-researchers and

practitioners have sought appropriate ways for small-holder farmers to increase their production

and productivity, given their resource constraints. Therefore, a number of technologies have been

developed, tested and adopted by small-holder farmers across SSA, yet not all technologies are

appropriate or productive under all conditions.

In the past, Appropriate Technology played an important role in the “Green Revolution” in Asia.

It is on record that new crop technologies delivered agricultural growth across the region, that

Small-holder farmers can be a key driver for poverty reduction. In fact, investments in Small-

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holder farmers can pay off handsomely in terms of increasing income in rural areas, and through

linkage effects, to poverty reduction on a sustainable basis.

Recognizing the important role agriculture play to the national economy, either directly or

indirectly, it will contribute to achieving interrelated development outcomes such as poverty,

food and nutritional security, economic and social development, gender equality, energy, water,

climate, biodiversity, peace and security, and disaster prevention or mitigation. This to a larger

extent form the basis for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As contained in the SDGs,

agriculture and food systems need to encourage systematic solution for making food production,

processing, trade and distribution more sustainable, equitable and resilient, thus also contributing

immensely to nutrition and other outcomes as related to agricultural productivity.

In the context of SSA, Small-holder farmers is defined on the basis of the size of land holding

which include individual agricultural plots of less than two hectares. Absence of Appropriate

Technology has been cited as the reason for low farm productivity in the region. It is true that in

the current circumstances, there are few profitable agricultural opportunities which are yet to be

exploited. However, with the adoption of appropriate technologies at lower cost that is user-

friendly and suitable for small-holder farmers, rapid growth in agricultural incomes to reduce

household poverty and ensure food security in the region is achievable.

Current Situation

Globally, there are about 500 million Small-holder farmers in developing countries and they are

home to some 2 billion people, including half the world’s undernourished people and the

majority of whom are living in absolute poverty (IFAD, 2015). Particularly to Sub-Saharan

Africa, Small-holder farming accounts for over 80 percent of all farms and most of the land

cultivated in the region. They produce the majority of agricultural goods and contribute over 90

percent of production in some of the country. For example, more than 75 percent of agricultural

output in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda are produced by small-holder farmers. The

region must stop begging for food. It is unacceptable to note that the region is abundantly blessed

with agricultural resources and good weather condition, yet the region ravages of hunger and

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malnourishment, and food insecurity. Indeed, that is an affront to both its dignity and its

potential. If some countries in the SSA can acquire and deploy jets fighters, tanks, artillery and

other advanced means of destruction, why should they not be able to master agricultural know-

how? Why should Africans be unable to afford and develop the technology, tractors, irrigation,

seed varieties and training needed to be food secure? This tends to pose a million questions.

It is undoubtedly that Agriculture accounts for the biggest share of most SSA economies, yet

despite some improvements, it remains in crisis. Production lags behind population growth,

fostering food insecurity and widespread rural poverty, especially for the small-holder farmers.

In fact, policy reforms in the sector have so far brought only mixed results, while measures to

boost output have been undermined by declining aid and low world prices for Africa's key

agricultural exports. In particular, in West Africa, agriculture employs around 60 percent of the

region’s assets. It makes up 35 percent of regional GDP and 15 percent of regional exports

(ECOWAS, 2014)1. In spite of its enormous potential, including other factors, the diversity of

agro-ecological systems, the relative availability of land and water, the adaptability of family

farming and the significant size of the regional market, still around 17 percent of the population

are experiencing food insecurity. In addition, the region suffers from incoherent and inadequate

agricultural and commercial policies. Perhaps, one should add to these challenges the growth in

regional population, increasingly numerous and highly urbanized, climate change and the need to

build an efficient regional market, well protected and generating employment and wealth based

on national markets and providing prices that prioritize the remuneration of the family farming

sector with a view to food security and sovereignty. Despite Sub-Saharan Africa’s low yields,

food supply have increased steadily. Food supply per capita rose from a little more than 2,000

kilocalories per day in the early 1960s to almost 2,300 in recent years (African Human

Development Report, 2012). Without question, regional agricultural policy plays a significant

role in the eradication of regional hunger and malnutrition.

1 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is a regional group of fifteen West African countries.

Founded on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, its mission is to promote economic integration

among its members.

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Furthermore, in some countries within the region, women and children walk several kilometers

per day to collect water for crops which, during the dry season, barely covers enough for

drinking water. Moreover, 80% of rainwater evaporates or is lost due to soil runoff. Little

interest and knowledge in soil management has led to the depletion of nutrients. This requires the

use of chemical fertilizers that are too costly for an average farmer in the rural areas. The price of

urea, diammonium phosphate (DAP) and potash (MOP) fertilizers averaged between US$200-

500 per ton in the past 10 years, reaching its highest in 2008 at over US$800 whereas GDP per

capita was US$1692.5 in 2012 (Park, 2015,1). Purchasing fertilizer is also difficult due to

challenges in accessing market price information and poor transportation infrastructure. As a

result, the average use of fertilizer per hectare in Nigeria is 6kg while that of China equals 550kg

and Indonesia 180kg respectively.

On that note, food security remains an important policy area of most countries in the Sub-

Saharan Africa in recent years, and could play a fundamental role in the eradication of hunger

and malnutrition. In reality, it is true that there are few small-holder farmers in the Sub-Saharan

Africa with sufficient capacity to absorb "western technologies" to improve food production and

reduce household poverty. The disconnect is that most agricultural professionals failed to

investigate the real issue from diverse spectra, including socio-cultural perspectives, to identify

natural and geographical limitations on top of a "Washington consensus" diagnosis. As regional

background and climate differs, so does a regional approach.

What is Appropriate Technology

Appropriate Technology is not a new concept as most authors envisaged. The concept was

promoted by E.F. Schumacher2 between 1950s and 1970s in his book titled “Small is Beautiful”.

In his book, Schumacher defined Appropriate Technology in two contexts. First, the most

effective technology to address the needs of developing areas. Second, socially and

environmentally acceptable technologies in industrialized nations. According to Reijswoud

(2009,pp.3), Appropriate Technology is technology that is suitable for the environmental,

cultural and economic conditions in which the technology is intended to be used. However, many

2 Ernst .F. Schumacher was a Britain Statistician and Economist. He served as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK

Government. He pioneered Appropriate Technology in development work through his book “Small is Beautiful”.

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scholars, policy makers, and agricultural researchers have underestimated the importance of

Appropriate Technology in developing countries.

Appropriate Technology is small-scale technology that is simple enough that people can manage

directly and on a local level. It makes use of skills and technology that are available in a local

community to supply basic human needs, such as gas and electricity, water, food, and waste

disposal. In other word, Appropriate Technology can be defined as technology that is

scientifically sound, adaptable to local needs, and acceptable to those who apply it and for those

whom it is used and that can be maintained by the people themselves in keeping with the

principles of self reliance with the resources the community and country can afford. An

Appropriate Technology is accessible, affordable, easy-to-use and maintain, effective and most

importantly, it serves a real need. In most cases, a simpler technology tends to more reliable than

the conventional technology, and the effects of a breakdown or repair do not necessarily

consume much resources.

We cannot isolate Appropriate Technology from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In

the context of SSA, it helps to reduce household poverty, curb food insecurity, good health and

well-being, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, reduced

inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production,

climate action, among others. In fact, Appropriate Technology is an aspect of sustainable

development. It should be technology choice and application that is small-scale, decentralized,

labour-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and locally controlled for the small-

holder farmers. Many small-holder farmers would prefer to return to a simpler way of life, and

finding local solutions to local problems to increase food production. Appropriate Technology is

attractive because it makes small-holder farmers more self-sufficient, and most things can be

managed at a local level. By making use of technologies that can be managed locally and save

more time, it could boost household incomes and increase yields. To be effective in practice and

have a wide impact, Appropriate Technology should be easy to maintain and must be affordable

for the small-holder farmers.

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Why Appropriate Technology is so important?

Recognizing the fact that ‘one-size-do-not necessarily fit all’, and ‘different ailments have

different medicinal’, agricultural systems across the globe are incredibly diverse, with crops,

livestock, climate, soils, tools, and technology varying from country to country and even farm to

farm, one-size-fits-all solutions are unlikely to work, and it is important that solutions to food

security in Sub-Saharan Africa will need to be tailored to address regional and site-barriers to

sustainability in the sector.

For Sub-Saharan Africa, the possible areas that requires interventions include staple crops such

as Cassava, Rice, Maize, Wheat, Potato, Livestock, Horticulture, among others. While the

desired technologies should focus on breeding, cultivation, agricultural machine, soil

management, crop protection, water management, nutrition, post harvest management,

biotechnology, e.t.c. This could help to increase production of food crops as well as increase the

incomes of small-holder farmers, and by extension, reducing extreme poverty in the region. For

example, the project that supports the Zero Hunger Initiative began with the technical assistance

of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with the objective of helping ECOWAS- member

states, the regional institutions and non-state actors to set up, in a participative way, a project for

the eradication of hunger and malnutrition in the region by 2025. Accordingly, the mobilization

and participation of all the actors in agriculture, food security and nutrition were considered as

fundamental to achieve this goal.

SSA needs to embark on the acquisition of the technology that is appropriate and useful to the

region. That America has sent men into space does not mean that Nigeria must also send men to

space. There is need to look at the region's environment to see what the local people do, and

fabricate machines, tools and equipments that will assist them to do these things more efficiently

given the prevailing environment. For example, in most part of SSA, there are “intermediate”

technologies such as drip irrigation, where plastic tubing is used to supply small amounts of

water to each individual plant, and existing and upcoming “new platform” technologies, such as

cereal varieties that are genetically modified to survive, and even prosper under drought

conditions. Particularly in West Africa, in drought-prone areas, where farmers deal with

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persistent and increasing water shortages, they need “traditional” water conservation techniques

and planting methods such as the “Zai system”, enabling farmers to use the small holes filled

with manure and the extensive underground termite tunnels that result, to both capture water and

recycle soil nutrients. It is important that small-holder farmers in the SSA should have types of

solutions to create value-chain. In fact, farmers around the globe are constantly looking for

methods to tweak, invest in, and improve their land and what it yields. And they are often

positioned to pick and choose the best combination for their own field, and adapt and innovate as

the prevailing conditions change.

Appropriate Technology for the 21st century emphasizes the use of renewable resources such as

energy from the sun, wind, or water. In SSA, these energy sources are readily available almost

everywhere and need only the right technology to harness them. Compare to the old-method of

burning coal and oil, these local energy sources do not contribute to air and water pollution and

they do not need to be transported over long distances. In fact, food, energy, water, and waste

disposal are also handled locally by ecological systems. These are systems that conserve

resources by recycling organic nutrients back into the soil and re-using manufactured goods in

innovative ways. Thus, Appropriate Technology makes it possible to satisfy basic human needs

while minimizing the impact on the environment.

Furthermore, many of the ideas integral to Appropriate Technology can now be found in the

recently concluded Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) which, among many tenets

advocates technological choices that meets human needs while preserving the environment for

future generations. For instance, in 1983, the OECD published the results of an extensive survey

of Appropriate Technology as characterized by “low investment cost per workplace, low capital

investment per unit of output, organizational simplicity, high adaptability to a particular social or

cultural environment, sparing use of natural resources, low cost of the final product of high

potential for employment”. This survey, simply highlighted the importance of Appropriate

Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Why Appropriate Technology is not implemented?

In this essay, I have identified three basic reasons why Appropriate Technology is not

implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa.

First, the work of Paul Polak (2010) discouraged the government and private sector from

investing in Appropriate Technology. In his work “The Death of Appropriate Technology I”, he

notes that the flowering of the Appropriate Technology movement in past decades had no major

impact on the poor, and many organizations devoted to Appropriate Technology have closed or

scaled down. He further stated that the movement died because it was led by well-intentioned

tinkerers instead of hard-nosed entrepreneurs designing for the market. Basically, Paul Plak

argue from a business point of view, “if you can’t sell it don’t do it”. For example, Germany’s

German’s Appropriate Technology Exchange (GATE) and Holland’s Technology Transfer for

Development (TOOL) no longer in operation. In recent years, a study looked at the continued

barriers to Appropriate Technology deployment despite the relatively low cost of transferring

information in the internet age. The barriers have been identified as: Appropriate Technology is

seen as inferior or “poor person’s” technology, technical transferability and robustness of

Appropriate Technology, insufficient funding,weak institutional support, and the challenges of

distance and time in tackling rural poverty.This to a large extent has affected investment in

Appropriate Technology.

Second, Appropriate Technology is majorly viewed by some government and agricultural

practitioners as donor-centered rather than user-centered, which led to the development of

technologies that ignored the culture, social values or purchasing power of locals, especially for

the small-holder farmers. Over the years, Donor-centered development of Appropriate

Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa led to the implementation of inappropriate technologies. For

example, donors like International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Bill and Melinda

Gates Foundation, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), UK

Department for International Development (DFID, Agence Francaise developpement (AFD),

German International Agency (GIZ), among others, have designed and implemented Appropriate

Technologies related projects to boost agricultural productivity for small-holder farmers in rural

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areas, aimed at increasing local incomes and alleviating household poverty. However, only in a

few instances that the projects succeed. Most donor agencies failed to involve the small-holder

farmers and agricultural practitioners in the design and implementation of Appropriate

Technology. For example, farming tools and machinery provided as ODA to Sub-Saharan Africa

in the past were complex in design while also difficult to maintain as spare parts were most times

unavailable in the market. Dams and other facilities built by donor countries also ceased

functioning after some years because of the shortage of skilled labor in maintenance.

Consequently, appropriate technology failed to be mainstreamed as a development aid tool.

Recently, Appropriate Technology research has taken a more user-centered approach, taking into

consideration the socio-cultural and natural environments of the local market. It also seeks cost-

effectiveness by utilizing local resources in the making of such technologies.

Third, Appropriate technology for advanced countries would mean technologies that make daily

activities more convenient. However, for Sub-Saharan Africa, Appropriate Technology would

mean technologies that solve basic needs such as heat for cooking and heating, water for

drinking and farming, or storage facilities that protect crops from disease and pests. Above all, it

should be easy to use and manage by rural farmers. Designing products for the region is a unique

challenge because inventors are creating technologies for cultures of which they have little, or no

experience. Also, ignorance of daily life and values in developing countries can pose difficulty

envisioning how people might use an invention, or whether said inventions fills a need at all. It is

important that the technology in question is accepted by the locals and fill the vacuum of their

needs. In fact, Appropriate Technology should be tailored to fit the psychosocial and biophysical

context prevailing in the region. It should be cheap, accessible, offer room for creativity, and

above all, small-scale.

The Role of Appropriate Technology

Appropriate Technology can empower the small-holder farmers, especially the poor and

vulnerable by building human capabilities and knowledge. For instance, during Asia’s green

revolution technology, it raised farm yields and streamlined agriculture, lifting communities out

of poverty and advancing human development. However, if misapplied in the context of SSA,

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technology can dispossess or marginalize poor people. It is important to stress that the

technologies in questions must have local content to suit the region considering regional

differences. As technology is critical to agricultural development, it is important that the

technology in question should be easy to use and environment-friendly to small-holder farmers.

Policies, programs, and projects that allow resource-poor small-holder farmers to choose, design

and adopt appropriate technologies that help crops survive harsh conditions could be encouraged

to increase agricultural productivity in SSA.are gradually emerging across sub-Saharan Africa.

In fact, for women and girls the challenge and promise of technology are both real and evident.

Reducing the time they spend gathering fuel-wood and water — more than twice as much time

as men and boys do in another part of developing countries. This technology that is appropriate

could empower women and free them for more productive tasks, greatly improving efficiency in

the rural communities. For example, a study by UK Department for International Development

(DFID) in Mali found that these platforms could save girls and women eight hours a week in

cereal processing time, improving girls’ primary school enrollment and academic performance

by freeing them from many routine burdens that are common in rural areas (African Human

Development Report 2012, 120). In a related development, in Northern Benin’s Solar Market

Garden, a novel solar-powered drip irrigation system that draws water from both surface and

groundwater sources and channels it to high-value fruit and vegetable crops, also increased

school enrollment among girls who would otherwise have had to haul the water. This shows that

women and girls suffer the most in the absence of appropriate technology.

Appropriate technology development has been most active in the agricultural sector because

farming is the main source of income for the majority of the population. In response to the

difficulties of accessing transparent information related to agricultural inputs, United States

Agency for International Development (USAID) used SMS for tracking the movement of

fertilizers. By connecting delivery trucks with warehouses through an automatic SMS

documentation system, farmers are notified of the estimated time of arrival, truck registration

number and amount of fertilizers that are to be delivered. This prevents loss and theft as well as

increasing the time efficiency of farmers who must travel several kilometers to reach a market.

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For example, USAID also increased crop productivity in Namibia by applying the ‘mulching

(covering)’ technique which enabled soil temperature adjustment, prevented soil loss during the

rainy season and preserved moisture. Namibia was able to increase millet production 5.6 times

per acre as a result. MIT and Kick Start have developed cheap farming tools that are easy to use.

MIT built the ‘portable corn sheller’ that enables farmers to collect corn kernels from the stalks

without having to carry heavy cornstalks to the fixed-type corn shellers that are expensive and

easily cause injury. Kick Start’s ‘Money Maker Max’ and ‘Money Maker Hip Pump’ are

irrigation pumps that are manually operated by foot. The light weight and durability of these

pumps make them easy to use in rural areas where there is no electricity.

Sub- Saharan Africa can extricate itself from pervasive food insecurity, including poverty

reduction and malnutrition by acting on four critical drivers of change: greater agricultural

productivity of small-holder farmers; more effective nutrition policies, especially for children;

greater community and household resilience to cope with shocks; and wider popular participation

and empowerment, especially of women and the rural poor. These drivers of change could

leverage on Appropriate Technology that is user-friendly, environmental permissible, and

affordable. In addition, both the private and public sectors should be actively involved in the

development and application of appropriate technology.

How Appropriate Technology can be implemented

First, there should be a clear linkage between research and technology users. Over the years,

uncoordinated and ineffective linkages between research, technology innovators and farmers

have been a challenge. However, the reasons for the poor status of linkages may vary from one

country to another in the region. In most cases, no efforts are made to create an enabling policy

environment for the institutions or for the individuals involved in the technology generation and

transfer processes. Even though it is clear that agriculture plays a fundamental role in the

eradication of hunger and malnutrition, policy framework needs to be designed to address the

poor linkage.

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Second, Both the Federal, States and Local government council of the region must support users

by assisting the scaling-up of small-scale or community-led technologies, or contributing

towards an enabling environment for Appropriate Technologies that can boost farmers' incomes

and alleviate household poverty. This can be done by legislating on necessary policies to

promote the scaling-up of successful technologies and to ensure mix-adaptation is avoided.

Third, the Governments of Sub-Saharan Africa should incorporate the concept of Appropriate

Technology into development cooperation with countries either through bilateral and multilateral

approaches. This can be done through joint research and development with donor countries,

international research institutions, private companies, universities, and international Non-

Governmental Organizations (INGOs). By doing this, it will help the process of finding an

effective way to develop the Appropriate Technologies suitable for Sub-Saharan Africa. It is

important to state that the process of disseminating those technologies should include local

farmers at the grassroots or agricultural professionals at various research institutions as

participants and agents in all research phases, including the development of new crops as well as

machines. Like in other donor countries, private companies as well as government agencies,

universities, and NGOs have initiated research and development in appropriate technology

development in the past. Sub-Saharan Africa like other developing countries is no difference. It

can be replicated within SSA context.

Fourth, small-holder farmers needs to be involved in designing the technologies. This will

encourage ownership and sustainability of the technology. Small-holder farmer as key

stakeholder should be central to considerations in any adaptation of technology efforts. They are

the end-users of these technologies, and could play a decisive role in terms of adaptation at

community level.

Fifth, International stakeholders can support the adaptation of Appropriate Technology by

providing financial resources needed to undertake robust research and increasing connections

among relevant stakeholders in the agricultural sector. This will enable the SSA to access the

finances needed to develop and disseminate technology information to the small-holder farmers

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to boost food production in the region. The importance of the private sector cannot be overstated.

Through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) approach, the private sector stakeholders can

contribute by securing and effectively employing financial and non-financial resources.

Finally, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and

Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in the agricultural sector must lead advocacy

campaigns towards sustainable Appropriate Technology adaptation. In addition, they should play

important roles in researching, implementing, facilitating, monitoring, evaluating and financing

technologies for adaptation. They can act as a vehicle for communication, particularly from and

to the final stakeholders, endorsing successful collaboration with respective custodians of

policies and advocating for the alignment with and creation of effective policies for

technological application.

Conclusion

The main goal of the application of Appropriate Technology in the agriculture sector is to

increase food production for the small-holder farmers. Other benefits include reducing household

poverty and increasing farmers' incomes. Small-holder farming can be an effective way to

increase food production in the Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a practical way for poor rural people to

feed themselves and their neighbors, generate incomes, stimulate vibrant rural economies, and

create new opportunities for young rural people so that the poor rural people of today can

become the rural entrepreneurs of tomorrow. This can be done through adapting a typical

Appropriate Technology inventions that require fewer resources, and use low cost or readily

available materials wherever possible. Special attention should be paid to the social, cultural, and

ethical aspects of the communities the technology is intended for.

Appropriate Technologies can contribute greatly in solving food security problems. It can solve

many problems bedeviling low productivity in the agricultural sector in SSA, including making

use of abundant resources more transparent, accountable and efficient. It is important that

agriculture-development experts and donor agencies who fund agricultural policies, programs

and projects wake up to the possibilities and prepare for a major overhaul of the landscape, we

will be left with beautiful skis but broken legs.

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As a matter of urgency, Appropriate Technologies needs to be integrated into national

agricultural development policy and planning processes in SSA. This will facilitate a system-

wide approach to engaging with the agricultural sector, including small-holder farmers

adaptation and mitigation of climate change. In addition, national policies across the SSA need to

devise, promote and support strategies for out-scaling those technologies. Above all, there is a

need for more practical research and innovation to identify barriers to widespread adoption of

those technologies; propose ways of alleviating them; and develop appropriate approaches to

guide investments that will assure improved resilience, productivity and sustainability in small-

holder systems in reducing the poverty gap and increasing household incomes. To this end, if

SSA is to mitigate the issue of food insecurity and malnutrition, it must improve its agricultural

performance through the development and adaptation of improved and appropriate agricultural

technologies. Small-holder farmers deserves the best agricultural technology available to

mitigate low farm yields in SSA.

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References

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (online) Available at:

http://www.ecowas.int/ (Accessed 19 November 2015).

IFPRI (2005). The Future of Small Farms: Proceedings of a Research Workshop.

Washington, DC.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). (2011). New Directions for

Smallholder Agriculture. Conference Paper held on 24-25 January. IFAD HQ, Rome,

Italy

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). (2013). African Agricultural

Development: Opportunities and Challenges, Statement by IFAD President at the 6th

Africa Agriculture Science Week and FARA General Assembly. (online) (Available

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International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). (online) Available at:

http://www.ifad.org/ (Accessed 19 November 2015).

Park et al, (2015). Utilizing Appropriate Technology for Development Cooperation with

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Do It. (online) Available at: http://www.paulpolak.com/the-death-of-appropriate-

technology-2/ (Accessed 25 November 2015)

Schumacher, Fritz. E (1973). Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People

Mattered. Harper & Row, New York, United States.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). African Human Development Report

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November, 2015).

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Appendices:

Figure 1: Agro-Ecological Zones

Source: FAO, 2002.

Figure 2: Proportion of Undernourished by Region

Source: FAO, 2010.