Tanzania - Basic economic report (Vol. 8 of 8) : Appropriate technologies in Tanzanian agriculture : some empirical and policy considerations

Report No. 1616-TA Tanzania Basic Economic Report Annex VII-Appropriate Technologies in Tanzanian Agrculture: Some Empirical and Policy Considerations December 1977 Eastern Atrica Country Programs I FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Document of the World Bank This document has a resrkted dlstnbut on and sry bhused bv re rrnu only ;n the performance ot thetr official duties. its contents may not otherwse be disdosedwtthoutWctd Bank authonzacson.  CUlRRENCY EQUIVALESTS 1/ SDR 1.00 - Tanzania Shilling (T.Sh.) 9.66 US$ 1.00 T Tanznia Shilling (T.Sh.,) 8.30 T.Sh. 1.00 - US$0.12 TANZANIA FISCAL YEAR July 1st - June 30th _t in October 1975 the Tanzanian Shilling was pegged to the value of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of the International Mmetary Fund. The US Doliar/Tanzeuia Shilling exchange rate is therefore subject to change.  FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY TANZANIA - BASIC ECONOMIC REPORT ANNEX VII POMPRATE TECMOLOGIES nI TASZANIAS AGRICULTURZ: SOME EMP}RICAL AMD POLICY CONSIDERATIONS Prepared by Mr. Inderjit Singh with assistance from: Mr. J. Subramanium The ful report consists of the following separately bound- volumes: Main Report Annex I - Domestic Fiuance and Resource Use Annex II - Fiscal Implications of Universal Primary Education and Universal Rural Water Supply Annex III - Labor Market Allocation and Income Distribution Annex IV - Tncome Distribution and Growth: A Simulation Model Annex. - Industry: Perspective and Strategic Choices Amnex VT - Key TI8ues in Agriculture and Rural Development Arnex VIz - Appropriate Technology in Tanzanian Agriculture! Some Empirical and Policy Considerations This document has a ruuricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their offcial dutie. Its contents may not otherwis be disclosed without World Bank authorization.  TABLE OF CONTEMiT$ Page No. t. Introduction 1 U1. What is A.piropriate Technology? 3 (1) Criteria for Appropriateness in Peasant Agriculture7 (2) Some Operatioual Considerations 10 III. Evidence From Past Studies 17 ILV. Further Evidence From Sukumaland 25 (1) The Peasant Farming System 25 (2) Models of Farm Bebaviour 26 V. Fam Models: Results and Imlications 30 (1) Comparisons of Different Types of Mechanization withL Trad~itional Practices 31 (2) Comparisou of Traditional with IMproved Croppinkg Practices 37 VT. Villaze Models: Results and Implications 42 (1) Comparison of Different Types of Mechanization Using Traditional Practices 43 (2) Improved Crop Practices 5 (3) Additional Considerations 52 VII. Conclusions and Recommendations 53  APPROPRTATE TECHNOLOGIES IN TANZANqIAN AGRICULTURE: SOE E !IRICAL AND POLICY CONSIDERATIONS I. IN=RODUCTION 1. As agricultural development and rural transformation have been at the center of Tanzanian economic planning, interest in the problems of agricultural technologies and their appropriateness for Tanzanian conditions has been expressed at the highest levels. In particular the possibilities of the use of ox-powered equipment in the context of an agricultural sector dominated by small peasant holdings and in a country where a large livestock population could be potentially drawn upon for draft animals was well recognized and continues to be today. 1/ As a tonsequence it should be a much studied subject. 2. However, relatively little is known about the role of oxen technologies, particularly their potential within the context of the prevalent farming systems in Tanzania. Although the Tan2ania Agricultural Machinery Testing Unit (TAMTIU) was set up in Arusha in the early sixties to look into these problems, its main function has been the testing and modification through field trials of a variety of farm machinery (including oxen implements) and processing equipment submitted to it by "designers and manufacturers." Little attention was paid to the development and adaptation of these technologies in order to successfully deliver them to farmers. Certainly uo detailed studies of the economic implication of alternative technologies at the farm level were carried out. 3. A government-sponsored study group looking into these issues as far back as 1968 felt that although there were areas in the country, particularly Sukumaland, where efforts to introduce the use of ox-drawn equipment had been "strikingly successful" and where oxen were used extensively, little research had been done on their efficiency or economic 1/ "We are using hoes. Xf two million farmers in Tanzania could jump from the hoe to the oxen plough, it would be a revolution. It would double our living standard, triple our product. This is the kind of thing China is doing." President Nyerere quoted in W.E. Smith, We Mutt: Run While They Walk, Random Rouse, New York, 1971. Also consiu ar the more recent statements by President Nyerere "... the trutb is that the agricultural results have been very disappointing. Modern methods have not spread very quickly or very widely; the majority of our traditional crops are still being grown by the same methods as our forefathers used ... People still think in terms of getting a tractor for their farms - even when they are small - rather than learning to use ox-ploughs." The Arusha Declaration: Ten Years After.  -2- potential in the prevalent farming systems. 1/ In spite of the continuing government emphasis on the importance of oxen technologies and the recemmendation of several FAO missions that the implication of these technologies should be studied in greater depth, 2/ little has been added to our knowl.edge-in-depth on these issues in the ensuing decade. 3/ 4. The renewed interest in the subject stems from the. acceleration Of the villagization and the ujamaa program. Hitherto, questions relating to agricultural technologies have been addressed to conditions dominated by smaliholder peasant agriculture with a scale of operations felt to be totally unsuited to (at least trac-tor) mechanization. 4/ T-he use of 'intermediate' mechanization with the uise of oxen was conisidered more 'appropriatel. But with the reorganization of agricultural production in planned ujamaa villages, the scale of operation can no longer be considered a constraint on mechanization. With villages ranging from 500-3,000 hectares or more, economies of scale associated with operations of this size could, come to play a significant role in determining the choice of technologies. Thus the formation of uJ-ma villages presents new opportunities and challenges that need to be investigated in an empirically detailed manner. 5. Furthermore, villagization is Likely to proceed only in stages. At present although farm and rural families have been relocated in villages the mode of production is still predominantly private with smallholdings scattered some distance from the villages. A first stage would envisage a certain amount of land allocated to private subsistence production farmed by households with their own labor with the rest farmed communally by the village as a whole. A second ujamaa stage would envisage fully communal forms, of enterprise with the village as an operating unit. The process of transition is likely to be slow and is likely to be hampered by both organizational and technical problems. One of the central problems as this transition proceeds will relAte to the choice of agricultural technologies. Therefore, any empirical evidence that can shed light on these issues is likely to prove useful fo-r agricultural planning anLd policy especially if such evidence allows one to compare the implication of these choices for the organization of production under private as well as communal forms of enterprise. 1/United Re-public of Tanzania: "iReport of Working Party No. 12 on Agricultural Mechanization,"' Second Five-Year Plan, June 1968, (mimeo) (p. 3-4). 2/ See FAO/tThi: "Assistance in Agricultural Mechanization in Tanzania," FAO Mission Report (September-October 1974), Rome, January 1975. 3/ The exception i-s the work, done in 1975 by J.M. Beeney under lJtNDP/FAO auspices. op. cit . The detailed findings of this and a few other scattered studies are presented in section IV, 4/ Though partial mechaqnization of given agricultural tasks such as land preparation through the organxization of "tractor-hire" services to spread the high fixed costs over many users has always been considered an economically feasible alternative even with smallholdings. Further, several such schemes have been tried. See section 111.  -3- 6. It is for this reason that the problem of appropriate agricul- tural technology was identified as one of the major economic issues that needed to be addressed in the context of the Basic Economic Report. 1/ II. WHAT IS APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY? 7. The conccrn for the "appropriateness" of the technologies used in agriculture stems partly from a disenchantment with past experience. Much of the new technologies that have been offered and accepted in the past have been patently unsuited to local conditions and have failed to generate the kind of economic and social changes that are considered desirable. 8. Of special concern has been the unhealthy emergence of the 'dual economy' and the havoc this has played with indigenous industr7 and handicrafts and the economic opportunities tied to them. Host of the development effort has gone into the big cities and industrial centers and has by-passed 70-85 percent of the population in most LDCs. 2/ 9. This development strategy has simply assumed that the modern sector will continue to grow until it absorbs most of the population - which is what the experience of the highly developed countries suggests. But this is wholly unrealistic especially during periods of transition. Further, to treat the consequences of this policy - the destruction of indigenous sources of employment, growing unemployment and mass migration into the cities - as merely transitional probl-em in the hope that time will prove to be the healer, is to ignore the most pervasive development issues. In fact, it has been argued that unless the dual economy is consciously counteracted, it produces what Schumacher has called "a process of mutual poisoning, whereby successful industrial development in the cities destroys the economic structure of the hinterland, and the hinterland takes its revenge by mass migration 11 "With agricultural and rural development being pressed on a broad front and supported by price incentives, the shift to non-manual technologies is likely to speed up as farmers attempt to reduce the labor constraint which is believed to operate in much of Tanzanian agriculture. Edeally, public policy regarding the prowision and pricing of farm capital inputs should aid the adoption of technologies most appropriate for particular regions and farm organizations. But for this to occur the economies of alternative farm technology has to be adequately researched. This is yet to be done." World Bank. "Tanzania, Economic Issues for the Next Decade," Eastern Africa Regional Office, November 3, 1975 (p. 10). 2/ Michael Lipton has called this the "urban bias." See his recent book, Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias in World Development, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1977, where he discussed the reasons for this bias and the detrimental impact on development policies and development.  -4- into the c