Improving stakeholder collaboration for sustainable agricultural mechanisation in rice production: a case study from Asutsuare, Ghana

Sustainable agricultural mechanisation can help to achieve sustainable agricultural production using locally appropriate technology. It involves using machinery to remove the drudgery of farming practices while ensuring the environmental, socio-cultural and economic feasibility of the machinery used. In rice production, mechanisation can improve productivity, reduce methane emissions from fields, and remove low-skilled, physically-intensive, and monotonous labour requirements. It is important to recognise the challenges arising from the complex roles of the stakeholders involved in incorporating machinery into agricultural practices. There has been limited research on how these stakeholders interact in smallholder agricultural mechanization in Africa. To determine the modalities of the interactions between stakeholders and to propose a practical collaboration structure, this study evaluates the roles of various stakeholders involved in the rice production process in Asutsuare, a rice-producing region in Ghana. Stakeholders included smallholder farmers, policymakers, machinery sales agents, manufacturers, and agricultural extension agents. Using the pairwise ranking technique, the study found that smallholder farmers were the most influential stakeholders regarding mechanising rice production. However, focus group discussions and key informant interviews revealed their feelings of neglect, stemming from a lack of support and resources from other stakeholders. The study proposes establishing a multistakeholder platform supported by transactional communication models to improve collaboration and machinery utilization among smallholder rice farmers. This approach will harness the expertise of operators, extension agents, and farmers, while incorporating resources from sales agents and policymakers. Additionally, training Agricultural Mechanisation Extension agents in machinery skills is recommended to enhance their effectiveness. These strategies can be adapted for other smallholder farming communities as well.