As dawn breaks in many rural communities in Nigeria, the sounds that herald the beginning of agricultural activities do not emanate from tractors or other machinery but from hoes, cutlasses, and other farm tools. The backbreaking work, coupled with blistered hands, is what millions of farmers engage in on a daily basis.
However, despite the fact that more than 70 percent of Nigeria’s labor force is engaged in agriculture—a sector that holds the key to the nation’s food security and economic diversification—things have remained pretty much the same in decades past.
However, there is a crisis in Nigeria’s agricultural sector that is not immediately visible. Currently, more than 80 percent of Nigeria’s farmers still rely on traditional tools. Mechanisation penetration is still low, with less than 10 percent of farmers using machinery.
Furthermore, with less than 30,000 tractors in operation, each tractor is responsible for cultivating almost 100,000 hectares of farmland. The consequences of low mechanisation in Nigeria’s agricultural sector include low yields. Cassava yields, for example, do not exceed 10 tonnes per hectare, while they have the potential to produce up to 30 tonnes. Cereals in Nigeria are also 40 to 60 percent behind global averages.
Moreover, even where yields are good, up to half of what is produced is often lost during processing. This is not just low productivity; it is also an opportunity cost.
Nigeria’s agricultural sector is still in subsistence mode. It is characterised by low access to farm machinery, high costs, small farm sizes, and low levels of private sector investment. For small-scale farmers, who dominate Nigeria’s agricultural sector, owning machinery such as tractors or even harvesters is simply not possible.
Mechanisation, where it is present, is mainly oriented towards commercial farming or government at the various levels purchasing tractors and making them available to farmers using political and other considerations which in most instances negate the contributions of the tractors to food security.
However, in the past few years, a different narrative has emerged that points to the fact that the problem is not insurmountable but solvable.
At the heart of the narrative is the work of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation and its Cassava Mechanisation and Agro-processing Project (CAMAP). The project has sought to challenge the narrative of mechanisation as a luxury by imagining it as a service that is accessible and tailored to the reality of the smallholder farmer.
Mechanisation is made possible through aggregation, whereby farmers are brought together in clusters to reap the benefits of economies of scale. Rather than having to own expensive machines, the farmer is able to access them when needed—ploughing, planting, spraying, and harvesting—under a system that is often termed ‘mechanisation as a service.’
It is not a complex concept, but one that holds tremendous potential and implications. Mechanisation is not just restricted to the farm but encompasses the entire value chain. Cassava is not only harvested but also processed into other higher-value products, ensuring that there is no waste and that farmers are not only producers but also players in the larger agricultural economy.
The results have been nothing short of transformative. Farmers who used to harvest between 7 and 9 tonnes of cassava per hectare are now harvesting between 25 and 30 tonnes. The income of the farmer has also doubled, and the revenue generated per hectare has gone up significantly. But more than the numbers, there is the human aspect of reduced drudgery, especially for women, and the renewed optimism in farming as a viable business.
The impact is not limited to individual farms; the model has led to the emergence of agribusinesses, including mechanisation service providers such as Agridrive.
The Country Manager of Agridrive, Dr Joseph Alloh noted that mechanization has proved to be the game changer for farmers, enabling them to achieve up to 100% increase in productivity and the consequent higher profitability with less stress and more time for socialization. This means a higher well-being and happiness index for our farmers.
What sets the AATF mechanisation model apart is its systems thinking. It is not just the technology that is innovative; the model has taken into consideration the ecosystem within which the mechanisation has to be effective. This includes the financing ecosystem, the infrastructure ecosystem, and the ecosystem of access to markets.
The essence of the AATF mechanisation model is that it transforms agriculture from a survival activity to a business.
For Nigeria to fully tap into its agricultural potential, the models need to go beyond the pilot stage and be taken to scale nationwide.
The implications are enormous; the cost of inaction is high, given the increasing pressure on food systems due to the increasing population.
The experience of the AATF cassava mechanisation model is instructive; the potential for transformation is enormous. When technology is married with systems thinking and access, the most intractable problems are surmountable.
Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, the sound that characterises the Nigerian farmlands at dawn will no longer be that of metal on soil but the hum of machines.
