Experts, in Abuja, stressed the need for mechanised farming in Nigeria, stating that the development will improve agricultural productivity and address challenges faced by smallholder farmers.
This is coming as an international development organisation, Heifer International, announced an additional $3.5 million in funding for its tractor financing initiative in Africa to speed up the pace of agricultural development on the continent.
The announcement followed an investment with Hello Tractor’s innovative Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) Tractor financing for agri-entrepreneurs in Nigeria which stands at about $1 million.
Pushing the firm’s funding for tractor financing in Africa to $4.5 million, President and CEO of Heifer International, Pierre Ferrari noted at the event that increased mechanisation – and tractors in particular – is vital as smallholder farmers scale up their production and build profitable and sustainable farming businesses.
“We are particularly impressed by Hello Tractor’s Pay-As-You-Go tractor financing model – an innovation that emerged from the AYuTe Africa Challenge, an agritech competition for young entrepreneurs run by Heifer International,” he said.
The organisation noted that the investment would increase the mechanisation of smallholder farmers, promoting increased food security and entrepreneurship across Africa.
The additional $3.5 million investment under the Tractors 4 Africa (T4A) project is expected to finance an additional 75 tractors across Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.
The company noted that the investment would provide affordable access to tractor services to 872,250 smallholder farmers at an affordable rate, boosting farm productivity, employment, food security and farmer livelihoods over the next ten years. The investment will create 6,979 new jobs as booking agents, tractor operators, technicians and tractor owners over 10 years.
“Africa has the lowest number of tractors per farmer globally and as a result, yields per hectare are low. Smallholder farmers do not have access to tractors and that’s something we aim to change. We encourage our partners and the donor community to join Heifer International on this journey,” Ferrari said.
The Tractors 4 Africa project aims to deploy 50,000 tractors servicing more than 90 million smallholder farmers across Africa, improving their incomes, while creating more than 500,000 jobs.
