Audio
Audio
The future of agriculture: farm technology for small scale farmers
©FAO/Florita Botts
17 January 2014, Rome – Modern farming technologies have eased the burden of hard labour for many farmers worldwide. However, many of the world’s farmers – mainly small scale farmers – still lack the technology to efficiently reap their crops. From a single farmer in Africa servicing his local community to the overarching need to meet the demands of the world’s growing population, farming technologies are crucial to the evolution of the farming industry. But what does this evolution of both farmer and industry entail? In a new book called, Mechanization for Rural Development: A review of patterns and progress from around the world, FAO takes a critical look at the mechanization of the world’s fields. It draws on lessons from those regions keeping up with the needs of today’s farmers and also the regions lagging behind.

Mr Josef Kienzle is an Agricultural Engineer at FAO. In the following interview he explains why farm mechanization and sustainable agriculture need to evolve together, how inadequate machinery affects this generation as well as the next generation of farmers, and what are the implications of not dealing with these issues.
3min. 21sec.
Topic(s): Agriculture & crops, Food production & stocks, Food Security, Rural or agricultural development
Produced by: Sandra Ferrari
 
Reference: 10316