“Now we can Breathe" — Designing Mechanization to Benefit Women Smallholder Farmers

The access and use of agricultural mechanization can play a critical role in increasing farm productivity while reducing the time, labor and drudgery of agricultural production. However, agricultural mechanization (like most technologies) is not always easily adopted, and women farmers are far more likely to face barriers in using mechanized tools. Agricultural mechanization needs to be designed in a manner that reflects the current priorities, perceptions and norms when it comes to both local agricultural systems and gender.

In Burkina Faso, over 80 percent of the labor force is employed in the agriculture sector. However, the level of on-farm mechanization is low, with 70 percent of smallholder farmers relying on hand labor, less than 30 percent using draft animals and less than two percent using tractor power. Women account for more than half of the agricultural labor force in rural areas and produce over two-thirds of the food consumed, however, 95 percent of women in rural areas practice subsistence farming using very basic techniques and non-mechanized instruments.