plowing or land clearing, particularly when a lower limit exists for the number of animals necessary to plow (e.g., two oxen is a standard assumption) or a plow is not available for attaching to the animals.

Table 11: Average household-level animal traction and mechanization levels

||A<br>All<br>livestock<br>(TLU)<br>(includes<br>zeros)|nimal tractio<br>% of hh<br>with<br>traction<br>animals|n<br>Traction<br>animals<br>(TLU)<br>(excludes<br>zeros)|Number of<br>tractors in<br>country<br>(unrestricted<br>weighted<br>sample)|Mecha<br>% of<br>households<br>that own a<br>tractor|nized farm equi<br>% of<br>households<br>that rent a<br>tractor|pment<br>% of hh that<br>own any<br>equipment|% of hh that<br>rent any<br>equipment|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Ethiopia|4.6|79.8|4.8|-|-|-|73.6|-|
|Malawi|0.4|2.4|3.3|707|<0.1|<0.1|0.8|1.1|
|Niger|2.5|37.8|3.2|6,286|0.3|0.2|77.5|13.6|
|Nigeria|2.6|19.9|7.3|449,688|1.6|-|9.4|-|
|Tanzania|3.0|22.5|8.3|170,250|2.2|3.0|16.4|19.1|
|Uganda|2.2|30.4|4.3|11,574|0.2|0.5|13.6|15.1|
|_Average _|_2.6_|_32.1_|_5.2_|_127,701_|_1.1_|_1.2_|_31.9_|_12.2_|

Note: Tropical livestock values (TLU) were computed using the Sub-Saharan African equivalents found in Njuki et al. (2011). For the number of tractors summation, the full sample – not what is found in Table 6 – is used in order to more accurately predict the number of tractors at the national level. The “average” row includes simple (unweighted) averages across the statistics reported at the country level.

Observable mechanization levels are described in Table 11. As a means of comparison, we create an aggregate of all livestock observed at the household level and compare that to an aggregate of explicitly traction animals (i.e., bulls, cows, steers, heifers, donkeys, ox, horses, and mules).<sup>14</sup> Livestock aggregation is done using tropical livestock units (TLU) using the Sub-Saharan African equivalents found in Njuki et al. (2011) where one TLU is roughly equivalent to 250 kg of live weight. We find that 32 percent of households across the six countries own animals that are considered suitable for traction activities. Ethiopia appears the best equipped to employ their existing livestock in agriculture while Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda all have moderate animal traction potential. Moreover, given that the average livestock ownership levels for animal traction is always above two, it appears the households should also not be constrained by the lack of sufficient animal power to plow fields.

Tractor ownership at the household level remains quite low, with around 1 percent of households across all countries claiming to own a tractor. The incidence of tractor rental appears no more robust, with a similar percentage of households engaging in the tractor rental market. As a means of comparison with the FAO statistics in Table 5, we estimate the number of tractors in the country (grayed column), as aggregated across the full sample and weighted to a national level using the population weights. The estimates in Nigeria and Tanzania far exceed those reported by the FAO in Table 5 likely due (in part but not entirely) to differences in the year the data were obtained and the small sample size off of which national ownership rates are estimated. The

> 14 Overall livestock ownership may give some indication of potential organic matter left on plots in the form of animal manure while ownership specific to the aforementioned large animals functions as a metric of potential animal power that could be used for traction. Cultivating households in Ethiopia have the highest values, which is commensurate with the high percentage of households applying organic fertilizer to their plots in Table 7. Malawi, on the other hand, has a very low amount of livestock and low percentage of households using organic manure. To the extent that animal manure is the largest contributor to on-farm organic fertilizer use, the amount of livestock available to farmers appears a major constraint to adding those complementary nutrients back into the soil.

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