admin_county
August 23, 2020
County Government launches mobile farmer school with Hello tractor
By Leleti jassor
The County Government in partnership with Hello Tractor has launched a mobile farmer school.
The farmer school will be used as a training facility to help farmers understand the benefits of mechanization in food production.
This will help increase efficiency by reducing drudgery as well as saving time and improving the quality of produce.
Speaking during the launch of the school at KALRO Njoro, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries CECM, Dr. Immaculate Maina, said the school will help farmers decipher the importance of mechanized food production to increase yield in addition to using certified seeds.
Hello Tractor is an agricultural technology company that uses mobile technology to help tractor owners manage their equipment and helps small farmers connect with these tractor owners through a digital market place.
According to Dr. Maina, the tracking tech of mobilizing tractors will ease farmers’ connections to agricultural machinery and aggregation services as well as give younger farmers opportunities for better farm management where less drudgery exists.
She encouraged tractor owners to register with the County and Hello tractor and download the app to support mechanization services.
At the same time, tractor owners were urged to use the Agricultural Mechanization Service Center (AMS) for their mechanization queries and the Farmers’ Call Center to receive free extension services offered.
CEO and Founder of Hello Tractor, Mr. Jehiel Oliver, said the mobile farmer school educates farmers on best practices and invests on farming communities.
Through the partnership, they have been upscaling to ensue farmers get affordable and timely tractor services to boost their productivity and income.
Over and above that, he added that the tracking tech helps tractor owners remotely manage their tractor hiring businesses which are then linked to organized farmers.
This is aimed at increasing the availability of tractor services to farmers which will increase food production and encourage more investors in agricultural mechanization and agribusiness.
Center Director, KALRO Njoro, Dr. Godwin Macharia, acknowledged that mechanization is key for the achievement of food security in the County and the tracking tech will bring orderliness in the mechanization sector.
With challenges including; quality and maintenance of tractors, unskilled labor, increase in emerging weeds spreading through the country; facing the sector, the County aims to introduce short term training course for tractor drivers for them to be tractor operators
In addition to that, offer training on other management practices to ensure proper maintenance of machinery within the County.
So far 12 tractor owners including some machinery from the County are agents registered under the Hello Tractor platform locating farmers through their IoT.
The County has also supported mechanization through the issuing of equipment to the Inua Hustler group in Elementaita Ward as well as procuring farm inputs used for training at the AMS.