Technology has always been an important part of agriculture, and in a sense, everything about agriculture is technology. After fire and cooking, agriculture was perhaps our first technology, and I prefer to think of cooking as an art… so in a sense, speaking about technology integration in agriculture is a misnomer, as agriculture is already an integration of technology.
However, this may disguise the fact that we have technological choices in agriculture. When we choose technology, we are enrolled in these choices. Often these choices reflect not our own interests, but the interest of the bigger system. To master technology is to understand how certain choices are already included in technology. These choices then determine how we will act as farmers and how we will produce. The example we used in the last event on a ready-made chicken farming system illustrates this vividly. When we buy such technology we are plunged into systems that have already made further choices for us in how we will produce, sell and waste. These choices are often what undermines the establishment of new farmers. We heard very clearly that the choice of “mainstream” technology is often determined by largest and lowest costs producers and the tragedy of agricultural development is that the smaller farmers adopt choices that are really only appropriate if you have a very very large operation.
What we need to do is enable farmers to make better choices regarding technology, and to see how and when they themselves can innovate with this technology. In all cases of technology adoption, we have to adapt the technology, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, to get the best use out of it. It is this ability to innovate and adapt, that is the key to successful technology integration. Technology is a means to “shorten all paths” and in a sense it always makes things simpler and easier. However, often we forget about things like pollution and sometimes technology is in fact bad for us.
The first idea a farmer should consider is to do it yourself. In this case, trial and error is important and remember: if you fail, you will innovate next time! The key idea behind technology is that humans can simplify or shorten the distance between two points. Technologies should always be adapted and users do best when they lead technology and are not lead by it.
The second idea that is important in understanding technology is to understand technology’s own process of development. Often, the highest raking model subsidises the lowest raking models. Don’t buy top of the range, as it will be costly. However, this means that machines are part of series of technologies, and points to an understanding of technology as a deep social process of development. This then alerts us to the fact that there are a lots of interests built into technology. Farmers need to know what they themselves need in order to master technology and make it serve them!
The third idea is to understand how the technology enables you to combine new and different things. To build an enterprise is a technology and there is no real difference between the tools and technologies on the farm and the farm itself. All of this needs to be seen as a complete system. Enterprise development is about the combination of different things, and technology may be the most important one in the mix.
On Friday we will be graced by three leading thinkers and practitioners of technology.
I have the pleasure of presenting Michris Janse van Rensburg. Michris deserves to be much better known in South Africa. His company, Backsaver Farm Equipment http://www.backsaver.co.za/ develops low cost but high precision handheld farming equipment. His Maize planter (that sells for a few 100 Rands) will enable a small farmer to plant up to 3 to 4 hectares per day by hand matching the precision of large planters, if not better. This will save significant costs. The equipment he designs and manufactures in Bultfontein in the Free State can enable a smaller farmer to compete with larger but at much lower cost. This is the kind of technologies we need to empower emerging and smaller farmers in South Africa. The costs are a fraction of renting or buying a tractor and the technology is as precise as a large mechanical planter. He makes and sells a lot of other things and please take a look!
Our next speaker is Kevin Naidoo who engages with technology from another vantage point. Kevin is well known in the food and NGO space and has developed a programme, or a competition rather, to reward farmers in adopting technology. This lab will also give him a chance to promote this competition. iZindaba Zokudla is proud to support him in this regard, Please take a look at: https://www.feed.org.za/ and scroll down to the Inqola Feed Innovation Prize https://www.feed.org.za/inqola-feed-innovation-prize/
Our next speaker comes from academia. It is a great pleasure to introducer Dr Angus Donald Campbell as a critical discussant in this session. Dr Campbell has recently completed a doctorate titled “Designing Development: An exploration of technology innovation by small-scale urban farmers in Johannesburg”. Dr Angus Donald Campbell formerly was the Head of Department of Industrial Design at the UJ and is now Design Programme Lead in the Elam School of Fine Arts, Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries, at the University of Auckland. He completed a very intimate and detailed study of selected farmers in Soweto and their own innovation of technology. We need a critical discussant like Angus so we can get a broader overarching understanding of technology and innovation in agriculture. We should all be alert that our own self-understanding may not be critical enough top see how we are placed and being placed and exploited in society. We always need other voices and eyes to see the system in its wholeness and I hope we can create such a view in this upcoming Farmers’ Lab!
I will make the link available tomorrow in a separate blog post!
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