Today Cassava Smartech’s EcoFarmer launched a platform for farmers to hire farming equipment like tractors, borehole drills etc. The service can be described as a marketplace where farmers and owners of equipment meet much like the sister company, Vaya is a marketplace for people who need transport and those who have cars ‘lying idle.’
Farmers that have equipment can list their equipment on the platform so it can be hired by those without.
The EcoFarmer service is accessible through USSD by dialing *902# on Econet.
The need
Government recently said there was a critical shortage of agricultural mechanical equipment. They said there was need for 33 000 tractors, 10 000 planters, 500 combine harversters and other critical equipment. This is the opportunity Cassava sees. The Cassava CEO, Eddie Chibi said:
We are therefore introducing this platform to complement Government efforts in addressing this need, boost productivity and ensure efficient utilization of available resources
The roll out
The farm mechanization as a service platform was developed in partnership with Ghananian company, Trotro Tractor Limited. It has been in pilot phase and 5 000 Ha of land have been tilled during pilot according to Cassava.
How about Vaya Tractor?
Looks like this service has migrated from Vaya which had was testing out a similar service some months ago or perhaps there will be collaboration there.
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