Heifer International, a
non-profit organisation working to end hunger and poverty through sustainable
farming, has outlined innovative ways of financing and empowering smallholder
farming communities in Africa. This is in addition to creating new
opportunities in agriculture for the youth population.
In its new report released
recently in Nairobi, Kenya, it disclosed how tens of thousands of these
smallholder African farmers have seen their livelihoods transformed by a tech-driven
mechanisation initiative.
The report titled ‘Mechanization
for Africa: Innovative Financing for Agricultural Transformation and Youth Job
Creation’, examined the role and benefits of agricultural innovation
Heifer Africa and Hello Tractor
co-designed a mechanization programme to ensure maximum impact and
sustainability. Heifer provided additional funding of $3.5 million in grant
financing to pilot the model in three African countries—Nigeria, Kenya, and
Uganda. This grant financing further unlocked commercial capital of over $7
million for increased tractor penetration and ecosystem development.
“The partnership with Heifer and
Hello Tractor was the first of its kind,” Jehiel Oliver, Founder/CEO, Hello
Tractor, noted, adding, “by injecting capital at the base of the pyramid and
empowering traditionally unbanked entrepreneurs to become tractor owners, we
are driving economic growth and transforming livelihoods. This investment has
unlocked commercial capital for Hello Tractor and has contributed to the
prosperity of our tractor owners and the thousands of smallholder farmers they
serve every season.”
Senior Vice President, Africa
Programmes, Heifer International, Adesuwa Ifedi said Smallholder farmers are
the backbone of Africa’s food systems, accounting for up to 80 per cent of food
production in sub-Saharan Africa.
She also believes that equipping
the smallholder farmers with the right tools and resources, including
appropriate and sustainable mechanization, are essential for increased
productivity.
Ifedi added that the impact of
this project, as shown in this report, has exceeded expectations. “We are happy
to have catalysed the unlocking of commercial capital that Hello Tractor needs
to scale this innovation. We encourage stakeholders, including policymakers,
development organisations, and the private sector to join us to promote
responsible and inclusive agricultural mechanization in Africa,” she said.
It also showcased how Heifer’s
support and investment in innovation and youth helped the expansion of an
agritech initiative to power large scale affordable access to tractors for
smallholder farmers, revealing that the resultant increased mechanization
spurred enhanced productivity, leading to improved livelihoods for smallholding
farming communities across the pilot countries in Africa.
“As this report shows, access to affordable tractors increased incomes of smallholder farmers by 227 percent within the beneficiaries’ pool, leading to not just enhanced productivity, but a plethora of critical transformational pathways – increased inclusion, an energised ecosystem, and job creation for Africa’s energetic youth,” she added.
Among other key findings, the
report highlights the value of catalytic financing and partnerships to scale
innovative agricultural solutions, as well as the effect of affordable
mechanization on improved agricultural yields, labour efficiency, and household
income for smallholder farmers.
It further emphasised the
importance and advantage of incorporating local contexts, farmer needs, and
gender equity into new technologies, revealing that the initiative provided
service to 21,048 smallholder farmers in need of mechanization services in the
three pilot countries of Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda as of December 2022.
According to the report, a total
of 104 farmers became tractor owners through a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) model,
adding that the project also created 368 direct jobs for youth serving as
booking agents, tractor operators and technicians, and 784 indirect jobs across
target communities.
She further stated that Heifer
partnered with Hello Tractor to launch a Pay-As-You-Go (P.A.Y.G) tractor
financing service to facilitate affordable tractor rental services to
smallholder farmers via a tech platform that enables ease of access for
beneficiaries, ease of monetization and for tractor owners, and overall
effective monitoring.
Hello Tractor is an agricultural
technology company that connects tractor owners to smallholder farmers in need
of tractor services. It works like the ride-hailing service, Uber, using
Internet of Things (IoT) technology via the Hello Tractor app.
The Hello Tractor app is a
marketplace that enables smallholder farmers’ access to equipment, while
enhancing profitability for equipment owners and building technical capacity.
The app works by identifying and listing equipment owners looking to rent,
recruiting booking agents and establishing them as links between equipment
owners and farmers’ requests for equipment leasing.
Ifedi recalls that not long ago,
Hello Tractor leveraged catalytic funding of US$1 million from Heifer Africa’s
Agriculture, Youth and Technology (AYuTe) initiative to kickstart expansive
operations, pointing out that the initiative is a catalyst for growth,
combining grants with business development and ecosystem transformation
initiatives to translate the energy and ideas of young African innovators into
meaningful impact for African farmers.
One of the pillars of the AYuTe
Africa Initiative is an annual challenge that awards cash grants to promising
young agritech innovators and firms across the continent — professionals who
are using technology to
Heifer’s commitment to advancing
sustainable food systems and food sovereignty in Africa through youth-led,
gender-balanced initiatives integrating innovative finance and technology is
poised for significant expansion through heightened partnerships such as the
Heifer/Hello Tractor P.A.Y.G. mechanization program.
Drawing on its extensive global
experience and five decades of dedicated work in Africa, Heifer remains
committed to reinforcing existing collaborations and forging new ones,
leveraging this collective strength to achieve scalable and sustainable impact
across the continent. The mechanization initiative is currently being scaled
across other countries on the continent.
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