Disadvantages of mechanized food production in developing countries

In most developing countries where the majority of the population is in the agricultural sector, excessive food production may be nearly as economically disruptive as food shortages, especially when such expensive inputs as fertilizers, fuel and equipment are part of production costs to be repaid from output sales. Mechanization for increased production, therefore, may not always be a desirable or appropriate policy target. In many developing countries, a lack of on-farm facilities for post-harvesting and handling of crops, coupled with limited economic channels of crop disposal, may form a critical bottleneck that has the effect of neutralizing all benefits due from mechanized tillage and/or crop protection investments.

1. Productivity increases in agriculture and industry over the last two centuries has come from "increased (rather than decreased) resource throughput," despite dramatic efficiency gains over the same period. This is irretrievably damaging the natural environment.

1. Inappropriate modernization of agriculture
2. Economic underdevelopment
3. Agricultural overproduction

1. Introduction of high-yield crop varieties
2. Adverse effects of high-yield grain in traditional agricultural settings

1. Underuse of high productivity methods of agricultural management
2. Inadequate packaging of food products
3. Deterioration of staple food production

1. Inadequate mechanisms for securing sufficient food supplies
2. Dependence of agriculture on oil consumption

1. Underuse of high productivity methods of agricultural management
2. Stagnated development of agricultural production
3. Limited farm mechanization

1. Gap in agricultural technology among countries

1. Reviewing food processing industry
2. Mechanizing food production technologies
3. Increasing food production to reduce rural poverty
4. Improving food production in developing countries

1. Unproductivity
2. Underproduction
3. Overproduction
4. Excess
5. Disadvantage
6. Counterproductivity