In Ghana, Agricultural Mechanization Service Centers (AMSEC) have been established across the country to promote agricultural mechanization for the private sector as an important program of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

AMSECs in each region have been providing machinery services to local farmers, to improve their access to agricultural machinery. Unfortunately, far short of the government’s goal to establish 170 AMSECs by 2015, only 89 was actually established. Furthermore, there were many cases where centers could not maintain stable profits due to management inefficiency and machinery problems.

Therefore, two staff members from our company worked on the AMSEC project to strengthen the administrative capabilities of the Agricultural Engineering Service Directorate (AESD) for the improvement of the AMSEC business. We provided management improvement training and consultation to business managers and machinery operators; we also contributed to the strengthening of cooperation among farmer groups, AMSECs and extension officers.

This project continues to encourage AMSECs to improve autonomy and sustainability of management, which, in turn will promote agriculture mechanization and lead to more efficient agricultural management for smallholder farmers in Ghana.

Planning and Promotion Support for rice consumption in Tanzania（2013-）

The Tanzanian government has been focusing on increasing rice production as an important domestic crop since the rice consumption has been increasing in recent years. Due to this, the government formulated the ‘’National Rice development strategy’’ aiming to double the 2008 rice production by 2018.

Japan has contributed to improving rice productivity in Tanzania since the 1970s. From 2007 to 2012, we implemented the project "Strengthening the supporting system of irrigated agricultural technology extension (Tan Rice)". We supported the improvement of rice productivity in the irrigated areas in Tanzania.

A succeeding project ‘’support scheme for promoting rice consumption (TANRICE 2)’’ was launched in 2013. We have expanded our focus on disseminating the training method about rice cultivation technology not only in irrigated areas, but also in rain-fed areas. In addition, we are focusing not only on production, but also on strengthening the entire supply chain of the rice industry, such as post-harvest and marketing in this new phase. 

Two experts in the fields of post-harvest and marketing from our company participated in this TANRICE 2 project. They are conducting training for smallholder farmers, such as how to determine proper harvest timing, post-harvest technologies, how to calculate revenue and negotiation skills with buyers.