Hello Tractor and CTA launch partnership to support smallholder farmers access mechanization
Hello Tractor and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) have announced the launch of a joint partnership project to increase smallholder farmers’ access to mechanization services and youth employment opportunities.
The partnership project will enable Hello Tractor to expand its services across Nigeria and Kenya over the next one year to connect 5,000 smallholder farmers to mechanization services, as well as to create jobs for youth as tractor operators and booking agents.
Best practices and lessons learned will be shared on implementing digital services for agricultural mechanization.
“We are delighted to partner with Hello Tractor in expanding its innovative digital platform to reach a large number of users that will contribute not only to modernizing smallholder agriculture and increasing productivity but also to attracting young people to agribusiness in Africa,” said Michael Hailu, Director of the CTA.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, farmers face some of the lowest rates of mechanization. Typically, within labor-constrained markets, mechanization is the solution to supplement the power gap. However, despite its benefits, cost and access have been key impediments to its widespread adoption.
Connecting fragmented farm plots to a cluster drives more equitable access to mechanization for farmers and makes serving the area profitable for tractor owners.
Hello Tractor connects tractor owners to farmers through an Internet-of-Things (IoT)-enabled digital solution that bridges the gap between manual and mechanized farming.
Hello Tractor enables farmers to request affordable tractor services, while providing enhanced security to tractor owners through remote asset tracking and virtual monitoring. Through technology, the company is creating sustainable business opportunities for compact tractor owners, while ensuring smallholder farmers have affordable and convenient access to mechanization services.
“We are excited to work with CTA to improve the delivery of mechanization services to smallholder farmers. Through this collaboration, we will identify, train, and grow the number of youth serving as booking agents on serving farmers” said Jehiel Oliver, Founder and CEO of Hello Tractor. “This partnership will grow demand for tractor services through targeted digital initiatives aimed at better coordinating the market.”
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food security, resilience and inclusive economic growth in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific through innovations in sustainable agriculture. CTA operates under the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is funded by the EU.
Hello Tractor is an award-winning agricultural technology social enterprise focused on improving food and income security for smallholder farmers relying on expensive and often unavailable manual labor.
The company has developed technology to increase and optimize tractor activity across African as well as Asian markets. Hello Tractor connects tractor owners to farmers through an Internet-of-Things (IoT) digital solution that bridges the gap between traditional farming and more technologically advanced approaches.
Its platform simplifies complex data to make tractors profitable as business assets even in smallholder farming systems. This disruptive technology holds the potential to increase agricultural productivity and farmer income for a more secure global food system.
