National Agricultural Mechanisation Strategy (NAMS) 2024 – 2028.

This National Agricultural Mechanisation Strategy (NAMS) provides a comprehensive five-year strategic framework to advance the agricultural mechanisation sub-sector. Its overarching goal is to make agricultural mechanisation services more accessible, efficient, and of higher quality for all categories of farmers along the agri-food value chain. The strategy addresses critical challenges in agricultural mechanisation while accelerating progress toward national and global food security goals, ensuring that everyone has access to sufficient, high-quality food for a healthy life. Achieving this requires improved food accessibility and the widespread promotion of sustainable agriculture. The strategy emphasizes developing and disseminating suitable sustainable mechanisation technologies for smallholder farmers while encouraging greater private sector involvement in providing these technologies and services across the value chain. This will involve revitalizing adaptive mechanisation research, enhancing training and extension services, scaling up financing for mechanisation initiatives, and incentivizing private sector participation through strengthened leadership, governance, and support systems. Sustainable agricultural mechanisation goes beyond acquiring machinery and equipment; it incorporates socio-economic factors crucial to its success and impact. Recognizing the diverse social and economic contexts of the country, the strategy seeks to address rural poverty, gender inequality, and resource access disparities. It aims to ensure that the benefits of sustainable agricultural mechanisation reach all segments of society, particularly marginalized and vulnerable groups.
The Strategy encompasses three key thematic areas (1) Promoting Sustainable and Efficient Agricultural Mechanisation Practices Among Smallholder Farmers: This area focuses on advancing agricultural mechanisation by (i) fostering the development of knowledge in agricultural mechanisation among stakeholders across the agricultural value chain; (ii) disseminating this knowledge effectively to ensure widespread awareness and adoption; and (iii) strengthening the national education and vocational training systems to build capacity in agricultural mechanisation; (2) Strengthening Agricultural Mechanisation Demand for Smallholder Farmers, Women, and Youth: The aim is to enhance access and adoption by (i) promoting services for smallholder land development; (ii) developing financial products and mechanisms to facilitate smallholder farmers’ acquisition of agricultural machinery and equipment; and (iii) encouraging the use of agricultural machinery and equipment among women and youth smallholder farmers; (3) Strengthening the Role of the Private Sector in the Agricultural Mechanisation Supply Chain: This area focuses on bolstering private sector involvement by (i) supporting the local manufacture and importation of agricultural machinery and equipment; and (ii) establishing a regulatory framework to ensure quality assurance for agricultural machinery, equipment, and tools.
To be implemented and achieve the goals, the NAMS will be disseminated to stakeholders through a robust communication plan developed by the National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS) within the Ministry of Agriculture. The plan will use various media platforms to ensure effective communication with smallholder farmers and other relevant stakeholders, guided by principles of openness, quality, knowledge sharing, learning, and fostering partnerships. It will adopt diverse communication and social marketing techniques, including face-to-face interactions, print-based materials, electronic and audio-visual media, and social media and digital platforms, to ensure the intended messages have the desired impact.