Locally Adapted Machinery Solutions For Sustainable Intensification Of Crop-livestock Systems In Tunisia

Abstract

Small crop-livestock systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) such as North African ones are characterized by low mechanization levels, thus undermining their productivity and sustainability. Machinery being promoted in local markets are made and imported mostly from industrial Countries where farm systems are larger in terms of size. Prices of these machines are unaffordable for small to medium sized land-holding farmers who remain incapable of upgrading and modernizing their farming operations. Through its work on crop livestock integration under conservation agriculture (CLCA) and the CRP livestock (feed and forage flagship), ICRADA and its national partners in Tunisia have been working on developing small machineries well adapted to small farming systems, and contributing to crops rotations through inclusion of forage crops, enhance the quality of animal feed, and allow to reduce the impact of livestock grazing on soil covers. These machines include “small mobile seed cleaning and treatment unit” and “small mobile feed-grinder machine”, etc. and were all locally manufactured at low cost. Adapted business models have been developed to further deploy these machines to small and medium farmers’ cooperatives and other potential machinery service delivery enterprises, thus contributing to diversify and enhance their respective incomes.