John Deere Africa Middle East | SMART initiative

20 Aug 2022 · 1 min

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This is a YouTube video titled "John Deere Africa Middle East | SMART initiative" created in August 2022. The content features multiple speakers including farmers and representatives discussing the benefits of mechanization and partnerships with the private sector to improve farming productivity. They share experiences about using tractors and planters to increase crop yields and efficiency in their agricultural work.

We here today just come and demonstrate the importance of having good collaborations with private sector around upliftment of the type of work these farmers are doing. We're dealing with farmers that have farmed for a long time. And the essence of today is to come and expose farmers to mechanization and technologies that they've never been exposed to that will enhance their ability to produce. I've started farming in 2015, doing vegetables on firefactors. Back in the days, we used to use a tail tractor that would give us many mechanical issues.
Ukanyo Farmer Development made a partnership with John Deere. And then that partnership I'm the beneficiary of, and I got a planter that doesn't have downtime this time. Everything that I do, I do it on time.
They gave us a tractor, 57.5 tractor. It's a 55 kilowatt tractor.
And we started using them last year, around the 15th of August, planting 35 to 40 hectares of maize, because we usually get 3 tons to 3.5 tons per hectare. And now we started harvesting. I think we have about 7.5 to 8 tons per hectare.
It has helped me a lot. I can use the mechanization to actually work a bit more efficient. I was getting 5 and then now I'm getting 8.6 tons. What mechanization has done for my farm and my business is that now I can be able to buy my own. Mechanization also helped me to decrease the time frame that I was using back then. Like the work that I used to do in three months. Now it's done in one day or two, three days.