The lower tillage intensity in Africa may simply reflect the abundance of land: in order to maximize labor productivity, people work thinly over a large area. Under the substitution view, the profitability of mechanization and its contribution to economic growth depend on the opportunities available to workers (and sometimes draft animals) released from their tasks.
Other things being equal, farming output will therefore fall (or grow more slowly), depending on the elasticity of final demand. Farmers mechanize, although they can seldom prevent some increase in their production cost. The best example of these trends comes from the United States after 1940. The use of tractors, combines, and other machines expanded at unprecedented rates. Although labor input per acre or per animal had declined a little between 1915 and 1939, it fell sharply after 1940.

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The lower tillage intensity in Africa may simply reflect the abundance of land: in order to maximize labor productivity, people work thinly over a large area. Under the substitution view, the profitability of mechanization and its contribution to economic growth depend on the opportunities available to workers (and sometimes draft animals) released from their tasks.
Other things being equal, farming output will therefore fall (or grow more slowly), depending on the elasticity of final demand. Farmers mechanize, although they can seldom prevent some increase in their production cost. The best example of these trends comes from the United States after 1940. The use of tractors, combines, and other machines expanded at unprecedented rates. Although labor input per acre or per animal had declined a little between 1915 and 1939, it fell sharply after 1940.

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