Expert harps on mechanised farming

By Ogundele Olanrewaju

Ibadan, Oct. 1 2021 No fewer than 42,000 smallholder farmers in the country have benefited from mechanised farming, improved seedlings supply, fertiliser and drone technology.
Mr George Marechera, the Managing Director, Agridrive, stated this in Ibadan on Wednesday while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noting that the beneficiaries are cassava, rice and maize farmers.
Marechera said that Agridrive had partnered with various state governments to address the challenges facing smallholder farmers who constituted a larger percentage in food production. 
He noted that before the mechanisation intervention to smallholder farmers, the maximum yield of cassava per hectare in Nigeria was five tonnes, but now farmers produce up to 25 tonnes.
He said the value chain had also been positively affected as more employment had been created along with the value chains such as transportation, logistics and processing.
“We actually introduced mechanisation farming to smallholder farmers in Nigeria.
“We went to local communities of the farmers with one hectare of land for each smallholder farmer for mechanisation to be achievable since; tractors are used.
“We provided free mechanisation service including the cassava stem, fertiliser and herbicide but the farmers are to ensure weed management. 

“The idea was to demonstrate to a farmer producing five tonnes without using improved cassava stem and fertiliser, so in the first year what we do is to assist the farmer.
“This improves the farmers’ sales and income. Next season, the smallholder farmers then acquire more lands and then mechanisation farming continues,” he said.

Marechera stated that the intervention, first initiated by African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), was a not-for-profit organisation.

He said that it was then turned into a sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship venture by the establishment of Agridrive and was being implemented in Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania.

He noted that the intervention by AATF had reduced the length of time for cassava production and with technology solutions from Agricdrive through the provision of services and offtakers, cassava farmers were now more productive. 

He said it had led to the promotion of agriculture sustainability which would address the challenges of food insecurity as the population of Nigeria grows astronomically as projected towards 2050 and climate change.
According to him, the intervention by Agridrive also results in ensuring that smallholder farmers who need land for farming get land from the state government. 

“We went to the Oyo State, Ogun, Osun that identified the farmers and leased land to them for farming.
“We also ensure financial inclusion; we link farmers to microfinance institutions, we access funding, though the money is not given directly to the farmers to avoid diversion of the funds.
“But the money is used to pay us to provide the services, expertise and inputs, then the farmers will harvest and this raises their livelihoods.

“We have seen many women and young people, even youths who are in school benefit from this model. We have youths in Kwara who are benefiting from this,” Marechera said.