São Paulo – Brazilian machinery turned to small-scale farming generated interest and may be produced by companies in Africa. They were created by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and were shown during international courses that the institution’s Rice and Beans unit offered to African researchers from Senegal, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau. According to the researcher of the Agricultural Mechanisation unit at Embrapa Rice and Beans, José Geraldo da Silva, the machinery is simple, and may be operated by foot or by hand, with no need for a sophisticated engine or saw mill for construction.
The machinery was developed by Embrapa so that it may be produced by the farmers themselves, at their properties. There are harvesters that may be operated by foot, using little engines or powered by tractor. There are also machines to remove the husks, which may be operated by foot or electric engine. They clean the grain through ventilation. When linked to a sieve, they may also be used to separate larger and smaller grain.
According to Silva, in Brazil the machinery industry is more turned to medium- and large-scale farms and the production scale of smaller equipment is low. “If it is like that in Brazil, imagine in Senegal, where industry is practically the same,” said the researcher. For this reason, the Embrapa teaching in the area generates such interest among Africans. “With machinery, more may be produced, with greater quality and less effort,” said Silva, repeating what he told the participants of the course.
It all started when technicians from Senegal and Guinea-Bissau participated, in March 2010, in a course about rice culture at Embrapa Rice and Beans. One of the parts of the course, on mechanisation, greatly attracted their attention. The same interest was shown in the second course, about rice, in March last year, which once again included professionals from both countries and Mauritania. Then a course solely on mechanisation was developed, in November last year, for participants in Senegal.
A further training, once again in the area of rice, but with a session on mechanisation, should take place in March, with the Senegalese. The activity is part of the Project for Support to the Development of Rice Farming in Senegal, executed by Embrapa and financed by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), under the Foreign Ministry of Brazil.
The equipment that generated the greatest attention of the Africans is appropriate for farming there – maybe requiring slight adaptation – as the climate and soil are very similar to those of Brazil. In the training course, the Brazilian experience is told. The country used to import machinery from Europe, where the climate is temperate, and that resulted in great expenses in fuel for soil preparation. Nowadays, according to Silva, Brazil uses direct cultivation (in which new seeds are planted on top of the previous culture), a technique more appropriate for the country.
*Translated by Mark Ament
