- Agricultural mechanization in Kenya remains low, with most households using only hand tools in 2012. Around a quarter used plows, few used tractors. - From 1992 to 2012, the percentage of farmers with trained oxen increased while the percentage with tractors decreased. - Tractors were most important in highland areas while animal traction was most popular in dry areas. All areas followed the same decreasing tractor, increasing oxen trend over time. - Factors affecting mechanization differ for tractors versus animal traction. Tractors correlated with income, land area, and age while animal traction correlated more with income, age, sales, family size, and extension access. Animal traction also negatively correlated with fertilizer

1. Evolution of agricultural mechanization
in Kenya from 1992– 2012
Hugo De Groote, Charles Marangu, Zachary Gitonga
Addis Ababa, October 31, 2017

2. Introduction
• Despite recent economic growth in Africa,
– poverty levels remain alarmingly high
– most people still live in rural areas,
– food production cannot keep pace with the rapidly
growing population
– agricultural intensification is therefore urgently needed.
• Africa has made progress in:
– Adoption of improved crop varieties: good
– Adoption of fertilizer and irrigation (land-saving
technologies): medium
• But:
– Adoption of mechanization and farm implements (land
saving technologies): remains low.
– Why?
– We have few recent studies on the topic in Africa
• In this study:
– an analysis of the evaluation of agricultural
mechanization in Kenya over the last 20 years.

3. Background
• Drivers of agricultural intensification
– increasing population,
– need for increased food production on a fixed land area (Boserup, 1965)
– Technology development towards the scarcest resources (Ruttan and Hayami,
1984).
• Mechanization: replacement of human labor by machinery, so:
– where labor is scarce: ex. Increasing urbanization
– where land is abundant: settler communities of North America, but also in East
and Southern Africa (ESA)
• Recent evolution in ESA:
– population grows rapidly,
– land becomes scarce and labor abundant.
– structural transformation is taking place: from rural to urban, driven by economic
development and job opportunities in the cities.
• Hypothesis:
– when rural labor moves to the cities, and the economy is sufficiently strong to
absorb them and pay increasing wages, labor will become scarce in rural areas.

4. Methodology
• Data: four representative household surveys
conducted by CIMMYT over the last 20 years
• Analysis of farm implements by rural households in
the last survey (2013), and their geographical
distribution
• Analysis of evolution of mechanization by tracing
adoption of tractors, plows and oxenover the four
studyies (1992, 2002, 2010, and 2013)
• Logistic regression to analyze the factors that affect
the adoption of these three factors (2013)

5. Survey sites
• All studies: stratified 2-stage
sampling
• Strata: 6 maize AEZs
• PSU: EA or sublocations
• SSU: households

6. Sample size
Agroecological zonePSUs
HH/
PSU HH PSUs
HH/
PSU HH PSUs
HH/
PSU HH PSUs
HH/
PSU HH
Low tropics 5 20 100 20 15 300 15 6 90 15 6 90
Dry mid-altitudes 10 18 181 25 8 200 18 12 217 18 12 216
Dry transitional 4 20 80 20 5 100 17 12 203 17 12 204
Moist mid-altitudes 9 20 183 25 10 250 20 12 240 20 12 240
Moist transitional 23 18 412 55 10 550 30 12 354 30 12 354
High tropics 28 16 451 40 10 400 20 12 240 20 12 240
total 79 1407 185 1800 120 1344 120 1344
1992 2002 2010 2012

7. Farm Implements
• Most implements: hand tools.
• First mechanical device: bicycle
(48%).
• Modern farm implements:
knapsack sprayer (46%) and
wheelbarrow (45%).
• Solar panels coming up (17%)
• Mechanization, ox-plow (28%),
few carts (8%), fewer tractors
(2%)

8. Evolution of farm mechanisation from
1992 to 2012
• Oxen: introduced by
European and South
African settlers in 19th-20th
century, who switched to
the use of tractors.
• After independence, large
settler farms taken over by
African farmers/elite.
• Many subdivided
• Animal traction was
promoted from colonial
times in the African
settlements

9. Mechanization
by zone
• Relative importance of
tractors and oxen over
the zones remains
over the years.
• Tractors mostly in the
highlands, likely from
colonial history, on
large commercial
farms
• Oxen and oxen plows
mostly in the dry and
moist mid-altitudes.

10. • Trajectories over time
are similar in the
different zones.
• Proportion of farmers
with tractors is
decreasing
• Proportion of farmers
with oxen and plows is
increasing
Evolution by Zone

11. Factors affecting adoption (2013)
Dependent variables
Constant Constant -7.29 *** -4.55 *** -4.21 ***
Head Age of household head (years) 0.04 * 0.00 0.02 ***
Household head is Male -0.37 0.54 -0.25
Head education (years) 0.04 0.01 0.03 *
Marital status Married but spouse away 0.59 0.88 *** 0.45
Divorced/separated 0.00 0.18 -1.00
Widow/widower 0.38 0.50 -0.34
Hopusehold Adult Equivalent 0.14 0.15 *** 0.15 ***
Tropical Livestock units 0.00 0.16 *** 0.11 ***
Total land (Acres) 0.03 ** -0.02 *** 0.00
Number of extention contacts 0.00 0.01 *** 0.01 ***
Total income (1000.000KES) 0.81 ** -2.18 *** -1.41 ***
% land owned 0.56 0.34 0.53
planting fertilizer (1=Yes; 0=No) 0.16 0.10 0.10
topdressing fertilizer (0=No; 1=Yes) 0.98 -0.70 *** -0.56 ***
Marketing Distance to main market (km) 0.02 0.00 -0.01
Percent of own maize sold 1.03 1.64 *** 1.51 ***
Agroecological Dry mid altitude -1.95 ** 1.58 *** 2.19 ***
Dry transitional -2.25 ** 0.80 1.11 ***
Moist transitional -2.51 *** 0.34 0.40
High tropics -1.07 -1.69 *** -1.75 ***
Moist mid altitudes -2.54 ** 1.07 ** 0.90 **
Tractor Trained oxen Ox plough

12. Summary
• Adoption levels of agricultural mechanization in Kenya remain low
– In 2012, most farm households used only hand tools, about half use bicycles,
knapsack sprayers or a wheelbarrows.
– About a quarter had a plow (28%), few a tractor (2%).
– None of the interviewed farmers owned two-wheel tractors.
• From 1992 to 2012,
– % farmers with trained oxen increased from 17% to 33%,
– % with tractors decreased from 5% to 2%.
• Tractors vs. Oxen
– Tractors were most important in the highlands,
– Animal traction was most popular in the dry areas, moist mid-altitudes
– Relative differences between zones remained, all zones followed the same trend.
• Factors that affect mechanization differ for tractors and animal traction.
– Tractors: increased with household income, acreage and age of the hh head.
– Animal traction: increases with income and age of the household head, but
decreases with land area. Further, adoption of animal traction is higher in
households where the husband is away, and increases with sales of maize,
livestock, family size, and access to extension. Finally, adoption of animal
traction is negatively correlated with the top dressing of fertilizer.

13. Discussion on Methods
• Definitions: distinctions should be made
– between ownership, access and use (through ownership or rental services)
of the different farm implements and draught animals
– between oxen plows and tractor plows,
– between different types of carts (oxen, donkey, or hand cart).
– between oxen and trained oxen, and donkeys should be included.
• Other mechanization elements should be included:
– weeding implements, to be used with draught animals,
– shelling equipment
– choppers
• Other factors of intensification: mechanical milling,
irrigation, electricity, ... should be included in studies

14. Conclusions
• Agricultural mechanization is making progress in Kenya, but through oxen, not tractors.
• On tractors:
– The proportion of farmers owning tractors is decreasing.
– Farming systems have not yet reach the intensification levels required.
– Two-wheel tractors are substantially cheaper, but still high, require fuel and maintenance, so their
profitability needs to be carefully assessed.
• Animal traction
– Has received little attention from rural development projects and extension agencies.
– From our analysis, animal traction is not linked to farm size; it does not reduce labor but rather
complements it; it helps reduce the use of chemical fertilizer, and helps to engage in commercial
maize production.
– There is still a large potential for expanding animal traction, in particular, in the highlands: large
farm areas, for crops and pasture, low population density, high levels of commercialization.
– Negative elements in the highlands: only one season, no grazing areas, no mixted purpose cattle
(mostly dairy).
– Adoption increases with extension, so continued trainingand research and dissemination is
needed.
– Animal traction is not indicated in areas with high population density, small farms and little pasture,
in particular the moist transitional zone.

15. Thank you
for your
interest!