According to the UN FAO (2023), agricultural mechanization is needed to make agrifood systems more sustainable from economic and social aspects, such as labor productivity, poverty reduction, food security, and health and well-being. Machinery is indispensable for modern farming. As human labor has moved from agriculture to other sectors, agricultural workers have been replaced with machinery. Such equipment reduces the time needed for farm management and enables scaling up of operations, thus increasing agricultural productivity. However, the effectiveness of agricultural machinery differs by country and region among APO members. For example, labor-saving machines are not very effective for economies with low labor costs, while sophisticated machines like agrirobots are preferred despite their high costs due to the labor shortage. Therefore, benchmarking is necessary to promote the adoption of appropriate mechanization models. As a continuing effort after the 2023 workshop, the focus in 2024 will be on assessment criteria to guide participants in applying suitable mechanization in their respective country.

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