Energy input in the Maize value chain in Benin

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Introduction

Maize production

Worldwide, maize (Zea mays l.) is the most widely cultivated crop with a production of over a billion tons per year and is therefore of very high importance for global food security and livelihoods, especially in developing countries. According to Leroux et al. (2019), maize is the leading staple food in West African countries with a yearly consumption of more than 30 kg/capita. From 2007-2016, yields of rainfed maize systems in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) range between 1.68 to 1.99 t/ha, which is 15-25% of the yield potential for water-limited production (ten Berge et al., 2019). Maize can be prepared in different forms which include whole-maize foods, porridges or beverages (Ekpa et al., 2018). In, maize is the most important staple food and the most cultivated crop, with 85% of farmers growing it. The area devoted to maize production is about one-third of the total agricultural area in Benin (Amegnaglo, 2018).

Maize value chain in Benin

Maize production has different processing steps, most of them are performed sequentially. Maize production starts with activities of land preparation, where fields are prepared for the planting. The activities of plant production include the processes from planting to harvest. Postharvest activities are the processing steps until reaching the final product.

Smallholder farmers usually do the land preparation and plant production manually, medium-sized farms commonly request the services concerning machinery for land preparation and equipment with or without operator. Large farms usually own the tractors for the cultivation of their crops.

Land preparation

During the clearing of the fields, bushes and shrubs are cut down manually and removed/burned by workers equipped with machetes. This activity can also be done mechanized. The ploughing is done either manually by farmers equipped with hoes or mechanized with the help of tractors.

The following table shows the labour inputs, when the field preparation activities are done manually. The number of farms indicate on how many farms the data were collected. Labour inputs gives the mean value (and standard deviation) of the total labour of one person required to prepare a field size of one hectare.

Process	Number of farms	Labour inputs (Man-hour/ha)
Manual clearing	12	137.9 (± 84.2)
Manual ploughing	7	181.1 (± 85.2)

The following table shows the amount of fuel required and the respective machine time for the mechanized clearing and ploughing of one hectare by tractor.

Process	Number of observations	Fuel (l/ha)	Machine time (h/ha)
Mechanized clearing	1	8.6	2.8
Mechanized ploughing	2	13.1 (± 4.9)	2.3 (± 1.1)

Fallow maize field with old crop residues

Maize field after mechanized clearing with a mulcher

Mechanized ploughing by tractor

Maize field after ploughing