Across Africa, governments, development practitioners and private companies have rediscovered agricultural mechanization as a top priority. In the literature, however, mechanization has largely been neglected following the earlier failures of state-led mechanization programs. In this empirical vacuum, several popular propositions have emerged, such as “mechanization leads to unemployment”. We examine nine such propositions and find that most of them are based on mixed evidence or not supported by evidence at all. Hence, they can be labeled “myths”. Such myths influence policies and programs and, thus, potentially undermine the potential contribution offered by agricultural mechanization in Africa to global food security. We propose a research agenda that aims to resolve controversies and support evidence-based policies for sustainable and inclusive agricultural mechanization.

在整个非洲，政府，发展从业人员和私营公司已重新发现了农业机械化的重中之重。然而，在文献中，由于国家主导的机械化计划的早期失败，机械化在很大程度上被忽略了。在这种经验真空中，出现了一些流行的主张，例如“机械化导致失业”。我们研究了九个这样的命题，发现它们大多数是基于混合证据或根本没有证据支持。因此，可以将它们标记为“神话”。这些神话影响政策和计划，因此有可能破坏非洲农业机械化对全球粮食安全的潜在贡献。