Deere & Co., the world’s leading producers of farm equipment, has ventured into the tractor-hailing market in Africa. It is equipping Hello Tractors with its durable tractors across the continent.
Hello Tractors is a significant player in the African tractor-hailing logistics industry. It already has an existing business model that allows customers to request for tractors via a mobile app. Farmers use their tractors for large farm sizes. The mobile app also helps the farmer to monitor the activities, fuel gauge, movement, and other information about tractors in real-time.
Deere & Co., on the other hand, is a US-based company that is popular for producing some of the best tractors in demand. The partnership with Hello Tractors will help Deere & Co. to gain market traction in the African market. This will also allow farmers to utilize its famous green and yellow tractors for mechanized farming.
Deere has begun testing the tracking technology on about 400 tractors in both Kenya and Ghana. It revealed plans to fully roll out the devices across Africa in the second half of 2020. The tractors will then be made available to the contractor who purchases its equipment across the continent.
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Jacques Taylor, Head of Deere & Co. Sub-Saharan Africa, in an interview with Reuters, said that the continent needs more machinery to develop its farming industry. He further noted that most farmers could not afford sophisticated farm tools needed to scale production that could justify large investment.
Supporting the words of Jacques, there has been a decline in the number of tractors for farming. Some of the underlying factors affecting the agro sector include inadequate funding from both the governing and financial institutions. Even when these funds are made available, there are stringent conditions for farmers. Deere seeks to fill the gap in mechanization through this partnership.
Deere also seeks to address the financing challenge by collecting data from the Hello Tractors platform. Information about farmers will help ascertain whether or not they are creditworthy for bank loans.
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