New publication: Mechanisation adoption in the Nepal Terai

A new publication from CIMMYT assesses the progress made towards agri-mechainsation in the Nepal Terai, and helps to identify constraints to focus future work.

The study used the non-binary ‘Stepwise Process of Mechanisation’ framework to investigate the status of agricultural mechanisation on the Nepal Terai. This framework was applied to representative survey data from 14 districts across 1,569 households from the region.

Exposure gaps (being unaware of the machines and/or how to use them) were substantial for all machines examined, meaning current demonstration programs may not be achieving their targeted outcomes. Additionally, across nearly all machinery types, a major reason for limited progression to sustained adoption was a lack of service providers, a manifestation of limited machinery ownership, meaning current broad subsidy programs aimed at procurement may not be achieving intended outcomes.

On a positive note, there is a substantial pool of potential adopters, and concentration of supply-side constraints highlights that with targeted intervention, rapid rural mechanisation is possible in the near future on the Nepal Terai.

The paper is a collaboration between SRFSI, the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and Roadmaps projects.

More information is available in a summary presentation of the paper; the full paper is available here.

For more information, please contact Dr Brendan Brown ([email protected]).