Today technology is unavoidable in the different sectors of any economy in the world. The impact is very evident in agriculture. In Ghana presently, a team of young agripreneurs (entrepreneurs in agriculture) are out with an innovation in the agriculture. Their mission is simply to connect smallholder farmers to tractors and other processing machinery.
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| Fig 1: TROTRO Tractor team: From L-R [Emmanuel Ansah-Amprofi - COO, Kamal Deen-Yakub - CEO & Adam Muhammed Muhideen - CTO] |
Problem
The company has as its name TROTRO Tractor. The word 'trotro' is a Ghanaian word for public transport which is patronize by many due to its availability, accessibility and affordability. In the same vane, TROTRO Tractor is poised at making mechanization services available, accessible and affordable to her clients. These equipment are expensive to own and maintain and almost impossible for smallholder farmers who cultivate an average of two (2) acres to own theirs.
There is also a big gap when you consider the ratio of tractor to farmer in Ghana. According to the FAO Stat report, the tractor-farmer ratio in the country stands at 1:
Solution
In TROTRO Tractor's effort to improve the productivity and income
of farmers, which will mean better livelihoods and food availability in Ghana
has developed a simple technology platform where farmers who are their prime clients
can pre-request and pay for mechanization serves ahead mobile money. By dialing a unique short code - *714*85# on all mobile networks and following the prompts you will be taken through the procedure.
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| Fig 2: Ploughing service |
What makes this services accessible to all is, one doesn't need a specialized mobile phone, app, call time or internet to enjoy. This self-service allows all without discrimination to access
machinery. This gives women farmers who are marginalized the opportunity to not
only farm but be able to expand their existing farms. Farmers are able to work
within their farming schedule and the drudgery is reduced.
Operations
During their pilot where the business model was tested, over 600 acres of arable land was prepared for 325 farmers.
30% of these were women, many who were farming for the first time. With
three (3) brand new tractors, these farmers were very satisfied with the
services provided by TROTRO Tractor. Among the services provided included:
ploughing, harrowing, ridging and planting.
Unique Value Proposition
With their pricing strategy; they were welcomed in all the
communities they operated. This gave TROTRO Tractor an upper-hand over their competitors who were other private tractor owners who came in for a piece of the market
cake. As part of the services rendered to the smallholder farmers, TROTRO
Tractor also did 'farmer profiling' - in simple terms data
collection. This is an activity of farmer personal data inputting, farm size
validation and farm mapping using a GARMIN device. This was an add-on service.
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| Fig 3: Farm mapping |
Finally, TROTRO Tractor by this novelty is going to take care
of tractor scarcity in Ghana. The startup is legally registered and incorporated prepared for the next season and hoping to
increase its fleet to be able to expand to other communities and reach more
farmers.
Written by:
Nana Kwame Darko
darkonana2011@gmail.com
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