Heifer International announces $3.5 million in funding to mechanize Africa’s agricultural sector

The total amount of US$4.5 million is intended to support Heifer’s Tractors 4 Africa (T4A) program, which aims to fund 75 additional tractors in three African countries, providing 872,250 smallholder farmers with affordable access to tractors, thereby improving agricultural production, employment, food security and farmers’ livelihoods.

International development organization Heifer International has announced additional funding of US$3.5 million for its Africa Tractor Finance Project, which aims to accelerate agricultural growth on the continent. The investment comes just two weeks after the development organization invested $1 million in Hello Tractor’s unique Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) financing program for Nigerian agribusinesses.

Since the beginning of the year, Heifer has invested $4.5 million in catalytic financing for tractor financing in Africa.

It also builds on funding provided to Hello Tractor during Heifer’s first AYuTe Africa Challenge, which saw the “Uber for Agriculture” fund 17 tractors for 17 entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda the previous year. .

The total amount of US$4.5 million is intended to support Heifer’s Tractors 4 Africa (T4A) program, which aims to fund 75 additional tractors in three African countries, providing 872,250 smallholder farmers with affordable access to tractors, thereby improving agricultural production, employment, food security and farmers’ livelihoods.

“As smallholder farmers increase their production and develop successful and sustainable agricultural businesses, increased mechanization, especially the use of tractors, is essential.”

“We are particularly intrigued by Hello Tractor’s Pay-As-You-Go tractor financing approach, which emerged from Heifer International’s AYuTe Africa Challenge, an Agritech competition for young entrepreneurs,” said Pierre Ferrari, President and CEO of Heifer International.

The investment will create 6,979 new jobs as booking agents, tractor drivers, technicians and tractor owners over the next ten years.

In the long term, the Tractors 4 Africa project hopes to deploy 50,000 tractors to serve more than 90 million African smallholder farmers, creating more than 500,000 jobs.

There are about 200 tractors per 100 square kilometers of agricultural land worldwide, but only about 27 in sub-Saharan Africa.

This is an example of a mechanization deficit that has a significant impact on agricultural productivity and local economies in a region where smallholder agriculture provides the majority of income.

Hello Tractor is one of many new Agritech start-ups sprouting up across the continent that are seeing business opportunities to tackle this and other agricultural challenges.

“Africa has the fewest tractors per farmer in the world, resulting in low yields per hectare.” We want to make sure that small farmers have access to tractors. “We invite our partners and the donor community to join us on this journey,said Ferrari.

First Published: Jun 02, 2022, 07:34 IST