Lagos Nigeria, November 2022.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has partnered with an indigenous tractor-hailing outfit, Tractor-On-the-Go (TOG), a subsidiary of the Origin Tech Group, to help smallholder famers in select states to help increase their income and farm output through the adoption of mechanized farming.
This is in line with USAID’s post COVID efforts to increase and unlock agricultural production in Nigeria that has been limited by the pandemic’s impact on food production, processing, and distribution. USAID provided a grant for TOG to aid in addressing these issues and as a means of supporting the local agricultural industry by increasing income for women and men at the Base of the Pyramid in rural and urban areas.
In a statement issued by Tractor-On-the-Go (TOG), the company stated that the project tagged “Mechanizing Agriculture to Create Wealth in Communities” which covered Plateau, Taraba, Ebonyi, Lagos and Niger States was a huge success as over 584 farmers were positively impacted through the grant and the efforts of TOG.
Shedding light on the project, the Training Manager and Project Supervisor, Mr. Lael Olayinka said “the project was divided into three phases, 1- Establishing tractor centers in strategic locations to ensure proximity to farming communities, 2- Capacity building to train operators and equipment handlers in agriculture mechanization and tractor operations and 3- Improving service for equipment lenders.”
He went on to state that through the activities of TOG, the farmers involved in the project reported a 69% reduction in their harvesting costs and a drop in number of days used in harvesting. “Based on the success of this project, TOG has also entered a partnership with the Lagos State Government and the agent in charge of the Ayamelum Rice cluster in Anambra State.”
TOG is currently harvesting rice on 4,535 hectares of land belonging to a cluster of 558 farmers and its partnership with Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture will see the company carrying out mechanization services (ploughing and harrowing) commencing with 2,500 hectares of land for the next farming season. This is estimated to directly impact at least 1000 farmers across the state.
