Training Manual for Two-wheel tractor and ancillary equipment for operators, service providers, extension experts and workshop owners

Rabe Yahaya (2022, [Libro])

Mechanization is a term used to describe tools, implements and machinery applied to improve the productivity of farm land and labour force, including crop processing after harvest. Mechanization covers broadly the entire process of on and off farm operations and mechanization may use either human, animal or motorized power, or a combination of these. In practice, therefore, it involves the provision and use of all forms of power sources and mechanical assistance to agriculture, from simple hand tools to draught animal power and to motorized power technologies. In Ethiopia, smallholder farming experiences high drudgery at all stages of crop husbandry and post-harvest processing. Field operations are performed using human and animal power (Mrema et al., 2008). Smallholder farmers without animal power use a lot of human power on crop husbandry and harvesting operations (Daum et al., 2020). Postharvest threshing and shelling are performed using human power but, in some countries like Ethiopia, farmers use livestock (cattle, donkeys and horses) for wheat, barley and teff threshing (Mohammed and Tadesse, 2018). The use of tractor power is low in Ethiopia and the government aims to increase farm power available to Ethiopian farmers 10 folds (from the current 0.1 Kw ha-1 to 1 kW ha-1 ) by 2025, with at least half of this power is derived from fossil fuel and electric engines. The government of Ethiopia aims to increase farm power using two-wheel tractors on smallholder farms in addition to four-wheel tractors that are already in use. Two-wheel tractors are sources of power designed to perform most field operations. Due to the size of two-wheel tractors, they have become an economic alternative for smallholder farming. In addition, twowheel tractors are also more productive than animal traction and they require less time for attendance and preparation, giving the individual farmer more independence and contact with modern technology. Also, due to their simple design, local manufacturing of two-wheel tractors has been implemented in several countries successfully, increasing employment opportunities in the process.

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA FARM EQUIPMENT TRACTORS TRAINING SMALLHOLDERS

Risk, Covid-19 and hospital care in Mexico City: Are we moving toward a new medical practice?

Rubén Muñoz (2023, [Artículo, Artículo])

Covid-19 pandemic has entailed new challenges for health care in the Mexican public health sector, producing changes in clinical practices that are now handling patients infected with covid-19 and also outpatient consultations at tertiary-level care hospitals. Some of these challenges are related to the perception of risk held by physicians regarding the possibility of contracting or transmitting covid-19 during their work,and to the management of risk from the standpoint of biomedical organizational culture linked to the material and symbolic conditions of public health services predating the pandemic. We analyze these issues from a anthropological research based on in-depth interviews to physicians that work with covid-19 patients at “Covid-19 hospitals” or “hybrid hospitals” in Mexico City. Covid-19 has arrived in social relations and perceptions of risk in the arena of health care and involves knowing and transforming some structural and symbolic conditions, resignified with the pandemic, for proper medical care.

Covid-19 percepción de riesgo personal de salud atención médica hospitalaria cultura organizacional biomédica CIENCIAS SOCIALES CIENCIAS SOCIALES risk perception health care workers hospital care biomedical organizational culture