Increasing Agricultural Productivity in the Third World

 

We often hear how up to date technology is inappropriate for the Third World. One example would be that of a charity that sent tractors to Africa to help fight famine. Petrol was too expensive for the farmers and so the unused tractors rusted in the field. What can be more readily used is intermediate technology. I would like to see Heavy Horses used in the Third World. Whilst they are little used in the West except as historic exhibits, if used in the Third World, they could each do the work of two water bison and yet eat less food than the two. They are still a great leap forward from the hand plow and so the amount of land cultivated could be increased from subsistence level to that of profit. Heavy Horses enjoy the heat and would be able to breed regularly, instead of gradually dying out in the West.