Sustainable mechanization can alleviate drudgery, raise farm productivity, increase incomes and provide new jobs.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the African Conservation Tillage (ACT) Network signed a Memorandum of Understanding on February 7, 2019 to encourage greater access for small-scale farmers to sustainable farm mechanization, such as two-wheeled tractors and other labour-saving machines. 

The partnership also seeks to link the use of farming machinery to Conservation Agriculture which is a farming system that promotes minimum soil disturbance and the planting of complementary plant species to enhance biodiversity and natural biological processes.

In Africa, smallholder farmers use their own muscle power, such as hand hoes, for around 65 percent of the total labour needed for land preparation, with draught animal power accounting for 25 percent and engine-powered machines just 10 percent. In South Asia by comparison, human muscle power is used for 30 percent of land preparation work, while engine power represents 40 percent, and in Latin America and the Caribbean engine power is used for half of all land preparation.  

This agreement is an important part of ACT and FAO's work towards the adoption of sustainable agricultural mechanization across Africa which has the potential to transform the lives and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers.