Practical demonstration of mould board ploughing with smallholders in Arsi Zone, Ethiopia
Agricultural Mechanisation and Technology for Smallholder Productivity (AMTP) project

The talk was organised in connection with BMZ’s Innovation Dialogue which took place the day before. It had a closer look at the mechanization of African agriculture and the debate of whether it is creating or destroying jobs.

Part of the discussion on structural change of African agriculture drew from the report of the Malabo Montpellier Panel MECHANISED -Transforming Africa’s Agriculture Value Chains

The expert talk provided the opportunity to discuss within GIZ the status quo of the implementation of agricultural mechanization projects, the challenges, opportunities and recommendations as well as the future role of German development cooperation in mechanisation efforts.

Proceedings

Heike Hoeffler — as host of the event and head of the Sector Project Agricultural Trade, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance — opened the event with an overview of what happened so far. Franz Donhauser gave an insight into the overall situation in partner countries. Velten Hebermehl shared experiences from the mechanization project in Ethiopia and Wolfgang Bertenbreiter’s presentation showed lessons learned from Zambia in the context of the COMPACI program.

The ensuing discussion produced concrete recommendations, for example regarding the necessary framework conditions, the need for education and vocational training, the importance of stakeholder involvement and coordination as well as ideas for the way forward.

More information

The event documentation, including all presentations and results of the discussions, is available for GIZ employees from katharina.schlemper@giz.de.

About the organisers

In February the Sector Project Agricultural Trade, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance in cooperation with the Task Force Communication of the BMZ special initiative “One World-No Hunger” invited to an expert talk on innovative mechanization concepts in Berlin.