There are estimated to be about 13 tractors per 100 square kilometers (10,000 hectares) of arable, African farmland in comparison to the global average of 200 tractors per hectare of arable land. The Journal of Human Ecology (2022) found that only 28% of smallholder farmers in Nigeria use tractors for their farm operations because no tractors are locally available, farmers lack the knowledge and financing to access these machines, and the ecosystem of support (spare parts, mechanics, fuel, etc) necessary to service and maintain large equipment is largely non-existent.
Heifer International’s AYuTe Africa Challenge, an annual competition that awards cash grants and business mentorship to promising young African agritech innovators, aims to close the gap between innovation and the needs of farming communities by embracing African ingenuity to solve the challenges faced by African farmers.

AYuTe offers entrepreneurs support to scale their ideas and disrupt traditional market forces holding rural economies back in the hope that bundling mentorship and entrepreneurship skills with innovations will accelerate the contribution of African ingenuity to tackle obstacles to sustainable productivity growth.

Hello Tractor, one of two winners of the first AYuTe Africa Challenge in 2021 is now a partner with Heifer International on a mechanization project that aims to transform rural economies in Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya by supporting farmers and rural entrepreneurs to join the digital economy and grow more crops – including staple foods like rice, tomatoes, maize soya beans, ginger, potatoes and casava – more productively .
The project, called Mechanization for Africa, is structured to create sustainable demand and supply for tractors through an initial investment from Heifer International and its partners for the machinery. The tractors can then be purchased by smallholder farmers who meet the criteria for financing through the project’s flexible “pay-as-you-go” financing model.

Participant farmers and service providers are then equipped with inputs and training as they work to repay their loans and manage their businesses. Once a tractor or tractors are available for hire within a rural community, it unlocks the by-the-hour rental service through the Hello Tractor marketplace app on the smartphones of participant farmers and local booking agents. The app connects smallholder farmers who need to hire a tractor with service providers like operators, community booking agents, mechanics and other providers on the ecosystem, and enables land mapping, data collection and an efficient payment and request system.

Farmers who do not have a smartphone transact through a booking agent who is trained to provide this service as part of the project. Farmers can also call a customer service line for additional support, though project technicians encourage booking agents to coordinate closely with farmers and book tractor time on their behalf to prevent overbooking and overcome scheduling issues.

The service creates transparency around fees and transactions for farmers who can “rent” a tractor and a tractor operator by the hour according to their needs and available resources. Owners and operators maximize their investment with better scheduling. This increases the productivity of multiple actors in the production value chain to create lasting impact.

A study commissioned by Heifer International titled Mechanization for Africa, Innovative Financing for Agricultural Transformation and Youth Job Creation surveyed participants in Nigeria and Kenya on the impact that mechanization has had on their productivity and income. The research showed that farmers in both countries benefitted from timely land preparation, planting, and harvesting to increase productivity and land utilization, which resulted in higher yields, improved income, and the ability to invest in diversified and nutritious crops. As of December 2022, 104 tractors have been purchased by the Mechanization for Africa project and handed over to smallholder farmers across Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda through the pay-as-you-go model to ensure that the investment is sustainable and community led. Participant farmers reported a significant drop in manual labor and 87% indicated that the intervention saved them time.