A second major conclusion is that mechanical energy outputs for agriculture can be used to complement, supplement, and replace draft animals, so as to meet various economic, technical and environmental criteria. Increased use of farm machines appears to be desirable for (i) small farms which have shortages of installed mechanical power which cannot be overcome by improving draft animal feed quantity and quality, (ii) irrigation; (iii) meeting power needs not met by draft animals so as to enable increases in cropping intensity.

This conclusion arises in large measure from two considerations. First the efficiency of modern energy sources is far higher than that of the draft animal system. Second, the constraints on land are so severe that it is unlikely that most small farmers could meet the mechanical power requirements by increasing draft animal population.

Our third major conclusion is that increasing the energy output from the present stock of draft animals is a much sounder way than increasing the draft animal population because the marginal efficiency of the improving feed quantity and quality to the existing stock is several times greater than increasing animal numbers. Thus, this approach can provide increases in useful energy output from draft animals with the smallest pressure on land resources. Our analysis indicates that the following should be investigated in more detail to address the problem of increasing the mechanical energy from draft animals on South Asian farms:

1. Increases in feed quantity and quality for existing draft animals, especially during the peak season to take advantage of the high ratio of marginal efficiency to average efficiency of draft animals (in contrast to machines where this ratio is close to 1).

2. Increases in commercial production of high quality feed for existing draft animals, so as to enable the increases discussed in item 1 above.

3. Plantation of mixed forests to increase land availability for fodder production in ways compatible with other needs. This may enable modest increases in farm animal population under some circumstances which may be more economical than farm machines.

Not all of these approaches would be suitable in all areas, of course. There will be climatic or other ecological limitations in some instances. For instance, it may not be possible to grow forests with the desired variety of trees to accommodate multiple uses. The problem of competition between land for food and land for growing high quality feed for draft animals must also be addressed. There is certainly no single solution for all farmers or regions. However, the need for additional power for traction, irrigation, and, in many situations, for post-harvest processing together with the severe nature of land constraints, points in the direction of increasing the efficiency of the use of the present stock of animals. This needs to be complemented with the use of small farm machines in a wide variety of situations.

This approach maximizes the output which the existing system can provide while seeking to improve the overall energy efficiency of agricultural energy use and to provide additional mechanical energy without increasing grazing land requirements substantially. It also meets the needs of limiting methane emissions which are an important environmental concern related to schemes for substantially increasing draft power by increasing draft animal population. Hence land constraints and global environmental considerations both point to increases in the use of modern energy sources. While this means increases in fossil fuel use in the short- and medium-term, the equipment and infrastructure would be compatible with the use of fuels derived from biomass and other forms of solar energy in the long term. Specifically, solar energy can also provide mechanical energy for a wide variety of applications as it becomes commercial. This can include electric farm machines.

The approach of maximizing the power and energy output from the existing farm animal population is needed to take the best advantage of the enormous investment that already exists in the present system. We need not have such a constraint in the long-term, where the combinations of farm animals and farm machines used to meet agricultural mechanical energy requirements could be considerably different even for farmers who depend mainly on animals today.¹

It is important to note in this context that the primary increases in power availability on farms in South Asia have come from increasing machines, both irrigation pumpsets and tractors. For instance, while the increase of draft animals is generally slower than population, tractors and irrigation pumpsets have grown rapidly. In Pakistan, electric motors and diesel engines grew from about 178,000 in 1978/79 to 225,000 in 1982/83 while tractors went from 76,000 to 91,000.² This is in part due to government encouragement of large farm machinery. It is however, also a reflection of the reality of shortages of land and feed for draft animals.

There are a considerable number of practical difficulties facing the approach outlined above. For example, small farmers often do not have enough land to make it practicable to purchase farm machinery and use it economically on their farms alone. A second, related, problem is that poor farmers do not have adequate access to credit.

Increasing the use of oil also increases foreign exchange requirements, which can be a constraint. However, it should be noted here that agricultural use of modern energy sources is only around 10% of total modern energy use, even though 60% or more of the people depend on agriculture for a living. Thus, the internal allocation of modern energy sources and internal distributional considerations are at least as much of a problem as foreign exchange constraints. Increasing the efficiency of use of modern energy sources in urban areas even modestly can allow for substantial increases in the amounts of modern fuels available for rural use.

Another difficulty, noted above, is that the present approaches to mechanization in India and elsewhere have generally emphasized larger tractors. This makes it even more difficult for smaller landowners to take advantage of machines.

Many of these issue can be framed in one question: what package of economic policies is needed to increase the mechanical power available to small farmers so that they can meet their present farming needs and also the need to increase land and labor productivity?

In looking at the problem in this broad way we can make the connection between traction needs for field work, the energy needs for irrigation, and post-harvest energy requirements for activities such as threshing.

One way to solve the various problems facing the increased use of farm machinery on small farms is the use of equipment-hire systems. Since the same equipment can be used on many farms, the total installed horsepower requirements and corresponding total capital requirements are considerably reduced.

Equipment-hire systems have been tried out in a number of different contexts. In fact, they operate without formal public policy input in South Asia. Pingali et al. have pointed out that past experience indicates that successful equipment-hire systems have been private rather than public sector or cooperative sector enterprises.³ For instance, public sector and cooperative sector enterprises tend to be located in one geographical area, so that the use of equipment is limited. Equipment that is taken from one area to the next for hire can take advantage of seasonal differences, thus maximizing use and reducing per hour costs. A second disadvantage has been that public systems have not provided incentives to operators to work long days during the peak season, which is essential to economizing on the amount of equipment that is needed to service a given land area.

We have not come across any equipment-hire scheme that has been designed explicitly to meet the power needs of small farmers, in situations where they could clearly use more mechanical energy inputs but cannot afford to do so. For instance the considerable class of farmers who now must rent bullocks or who cannot plough their land adequately due to draft power shortages belong in this category.

An approach of creating private equipment-hire enterprises that could meet the needs of such farmers by providing credit to create such enterprises could be married to simultaneous provision of agricultural credit to small farmers with the express purpose of enabling them to make use of such services. This would assure a market for the entrepreneurs without tying them down to a bureaucratic mode of operation, and it would meet the capital needs of small farmers to use the services without having to go to moneylenders.

U.S. Policy

There is an urgent need to incorporate draft animals energy use and land requirements into international statistics on energy and land. This naturally involves the United Nations and its agencies, which are the prime compilers of such statistics. However, U.N. agencies can only compile the statistics which countries collect. An obvious role for the U.S. would be to provide the financial and technical assistance which many countries would need to collect such data and also to U.N. agencies which would compile and analyze it.

In view of the great importance of increasing draft power on farms from a number of points of view, the various means to do this which are compatible with global environmental protection are another area of interest. As noted, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has already prepared a study on the role of ruminants in methane accumulations. That study noted the desirability of improving data on numbers and sizes of animals, their feed intake, and methane emissions.⁴ But the study did not consider in any detail the needs for draft power, and how such needs could be met while minimizing methane accumulations in the short-, medium- and long-term. Indeed, there is practically a note of resignation on this score:

Whether this rather pessimistic conclusion is warranted can only be determined after a more definitive study. But it is clear even at present that draft power shortages already exist, and that these shortages can be addressed by a variety of means, many of which have been discussed here.

The modern fuel requirements of farm machines are not great compared to the use of fossil fuels even in Third World countries. Further, the marginal efficiency of existing cattle use of improved feed is high. These two facts alone give more room for hope that an adequately designed program, well targeted to the potential beneficiaries could go a considerable distance in meeting draft power needs, and improving land and labor productivity within broad environmental constraints.

Finally, an adequate program that addresses short-term needs could create the long-term potential for using a considerable amount of the output of crop residues and other non-food biomass in modern conversion facilities. This would greatly improve both the efficiency of rural energy use and the availability of useful energy to meet the diverse energy needs of agriculture and other ares in the rural Third World.