Professor Gajendra Singh, Chair of the ASMC Science Committee, presented at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department's I4 Seminar on Friday, April 16th, 2021. Abstract: The Asian region has made great progress over the past six decades in transforming farm power situation from over 90% from animate sources in 1960s to over 60% from mechanical sources by now. Four main types of mechanical power sources are popular: i) 2Wheel-Single Axle tractors for wet tillage, transportation, water pumping and threshing; ii) 4Wheel-Two Axle tractors for dry tillage, transportation, planting and seeding, inter-culture, spraying, harvesting and threshing; iii) Electrical motors and Diesel engines for irrigation pump sets and many postharvest processing operations; and iv) Self-propelled machines like combine harvesters and transplanters. Average farm holding size is about 1 ha. More than 85% of 500 million small farm holdings in the world below 2 ha are in Asia. Increased utilization of machines available with farmers through custom hiring to neighbor farmers and or through larger operational holdings makes ownership of machines economic and profitable.

In Burkina Faso, farm income is low, farms are small, and farmland for expansion is scarce. 70% of farmers do all field work by hand, less than 30% have access to animal power. Very few farmers can use modern farm equipment profitably. In the context of mechanization, sustainability is the match-up between the technology and the context in which it is used. Animal traction is the appropriate scale technology in Burkina Faso and many other developing countries.

This video highlights some of the technologies that ASMC is promoting to scale up in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cambodia, and Burkina Faso.

A look at the tools, equipment and working conditions in Burkina Faso as we partner with local farmers and artisans to develop and adapt conservation cropping systems for smallholder farmers.

We are working in west Africa on mechanization for conservation agriculture. We have made major improvements to the planter and worked with the local blacksmith to develop low-crown, low-pitch angle sweeps that increased the effective cutting width 20% compared to shovels typically used, and the sweep design decreased the pulling force by 21%. We will be back in Burkina Faso in the fall to evaluate crop progress and continue with equipment evaluation and innovation.

Small scale corn, sorghum and millet silage mechanization for smallholder farmers in Burkina Faso.

The video is a part of the Feed the Future, USAID initiative Appropriate Scale Mechanization Consortium (ASMC) project "Appropriate Scale Mechanization Innovation Hub (ASMIH) -Bangladesh" under the Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. The ASMIH -Bangladesh project is being implemented in the southern region of of Bangladesh in collaboration with Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to encourage farmers for using modern Agricultural Machinery.

Feed the Future program and USAID, USA funded project "Appropriate Scale Mechanization Innovation Hub (ASMIH)-Bangladesh" organized a Virtual Annual Workshop 2020 on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 at zoom online platform. The theme of the workshop was Appropriate Scale Mechanization: A Key to Sustainable Food Security in Bangladesh. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL) based in the Kansas State University, USA, Appropriate Scale Mechanization Consortium (ASMC) based in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Bangladesh have partnered to host the event. Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, MP, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was the Chief Guest of the inaugural session of the workshop. Professor Dr. Lutful Hassan, Vice Chancellor, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh was present as the Chief Patron of the Inaugural session. Professor Dr. P. V. Vara Prasad, Director, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL), Kansas State University, USA was the Special Guest in the inaugural session. Professor Dr. Prasanta K. Kalita, Director, Appropriate Scale Mechanization Consortium (ASMC), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA was the Chair of the inaugural session of the workshop. A panel discussion session on the workshop theme was taken place at 10:25 am on Wednesday September 23, 2020 involving distinguished panelists Professor Dr. M. A. Sattar Mandal, Emeritus Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh; Dr. Wais Kabir, Former Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Bangladesh; Mr. Md. Hamidur Rahman, Former Director General, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh; Dr. F. H. Ansarey, Managing Director & CEO, ACI Agribusinesses, Bangladesh and Professor Dr. Md. Monjurul Alam, Project Director, ASMIH-Bangladesh, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh. The workshop was concluded by the closing remarks of Professor Dr. Md. Jasimuddin Khan, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh and Dr. Md. Nazirul Islam, Director General, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh. The whole workshop was moderated by the Dr. Chayan Kumer Saha, Associate Director, ASMIH-BD and Professor at the Department of Farm Power and Machinery, BAU, Mymensingh.

The video is a part of the Feed the Future, USAID initiative Appropriate Scale Mechanization Consortium (ASMC) project "Appropriate Scale Mechanization Innovation Hub (ASMIH) -Bangladesh" under the Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. The ASMIH -Bangladesh project is being implemented in the southern region of of Bangladesh to encourage farmers for using modern Agricultural Machinery.