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Solving Food Insecurity in Africa | A Noble Conversation with Susan Njihia
In this episode, we sit down with Susan Njihia, the Innovation Lead behind Hello Tractor, to explore how innovation is transforming agriculture across Africa.
We cover:
1. How Hello Tractor is using cutting-edge tech like microwave links for precise weather data.
2. The impact of AI-driven tools and sustainable practices on farmers' revenues and climate resilience.
3. The role of trust, community, and partnerships in advancing agriculture.
4. Emerging farming methods like hydroponics and vertical farming as solutions for future challenges.
Join us as Susan shares her journey from economics to agricultural innovation, the critical contributions of Africans in the diaspora, and her vision for the future of farming.
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ABOUT NOBLE CONVERSATIONS: Noble Conversations is dedicated to building the society of our dreams by engaging with changemakers in Advocacy, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship (ACE).
Okay, so today we have an amazing guest.
Speaker 2:Most definitely, most definitely.
Speaker 1:My name is Susan Njia. Yeah, she leads innovation at Hello Tractor. Hello Tractor, basically, is a company that connects farmers to equipment owners so that's tractors and all that but also helps the equipment owners. So that's tractors and all that, but also helps the equipment owners track their equipment to see what fuel consumption looks like, who is operating it. Um, how much land, right, the tractor has been able to uh tract. Yeah, if that's even a word. Yeah, but how much land the tractor has been able to cover. So today, today we'll be just talking about Hello Tractor, talking about who Susan is outside of Hello Tractor, and even just learning more about her story, her background, even the geographical reach that Hello Tractor has.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean I'm excited to have this conversation because I think, regarding agriculture in Africa in general, I think there's a huge need to see it industrialized and mechanized. You know, and I think Hello Tractor actually kind of pioneered that in a way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, especially when it comes to like making sure that food insecurity is something that's tackled and addressed?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, because I mean farmers generally are. You know, then, farmers are not necessarily like risk takers, right, and that's due to the nature of their work. It's very seasonal, but they're also very result driven, so once you show them x is going to lead to y, then they're more likely to adopt mechanization, and I think that's something that helotractor is doing a really good job of, especially in the different regions that they're in. I mean, currently, then, they have five main markets, but they also partner with um other companies in, I believe, 14 different countries across the continent.
Speaker 1:So this is a good one. This is a good one. I mean, I'm excited to have you know conversations. Yeah, a noble conversation exactly okay, so you, you lead innovation at Hello Tractor, right, and you've also been in the product innovation design space for the past nine years. Like, who is Susan when it comes to you know, innovation and design, but also, who is Susan outside of that and how?
Speaker 3:did you find?
Speaker 1:your way to Hello Tractor.
Speaker 3:Good. I am definitely passionate about innovation. It was never the case in the beginning, because my background is in economics and statistics. So when I began my professional journey, I started out as a statistician right and I would get really excited with numbers and trying to measure trends and having a quantitative way to decision making having a quantitative way to decision making. But in the midst of it all, I started becoming very passionate about a space where I'm able to incubate very frontier innovation, and what that means is things that have not been tested before, and I started becoming very excited at experimentation and rapid prototyping, but also the excitement that customers would have when you present something utterly new to them, right. So it began that way, and I think I've been smitten ever since, because what I do for Hello Tractor, for example, is take components that are not yet embedded to the main business model. Take components that are not yet embedded to the main business model, things like I will give you an example.
Speaker 3:For instance, these are very traditional and mundane ways of collecting weather information, and that is they are global sources of weather, like for you to be able to measure rainfall.
Speaker 3:And then in Nigeria, for example, a mobile network operator called MTN comes up with a new innovative way of collecting rainfall, and this looks at cell towers, for example. So between two cell towers there's usually frequency, and any attenuation in the signal of this frequency can actually be attributed to rainfall. So if it rains, then there's usually a bit of static that is caused in that frequency, and so there's an algorithm that was built and the algorithm translates that kind of the signal difference to rainfall. That's crazy. So that is very innovative, and the benefit of that is you get very high resolution, because if you're relying on global sources of rainfall, for example, you're getting a resolution of 15 kilometers squared, squared, but if you look at areas between cell towers, you get very tight resolution of up to even five kilometers and by resolution you mean like accuracy of predicting rainfall, right yeah, and I and I was actually going to go there.
Speaker 3:And the accuracy is actually higher because, you know, in the tropics there is erratic rainfall, right? So even when the global sources of weather say that it's going to rain tomorrow or the day after there is usually the tropics have a bit of erratic rainfall. So this we call it CML, like commercial microwave links sources of data. It's very accurate, it's reliable, but it also has high resolution. So that is an example of like an innovative way we can gauge, we can collect weather information, and there are, like many other examples. So that kind of stuff is exciting. You think it's exciting.
Speaker 3:So you can imagine, I feel like I have the best job. To be honest, I also appreciate a space like hello tractor that allows research and development and rapid prototyping, experimentation, continuous learning, so it gives me a space and ability to actually do this kind of stuff. So this is inside Hello Tractor and outside. I think I'm similar pretty much across board, because I'm the type of person who will get really fascinated by the new. I'm an early adopter, so to speak, like when Uber was new in our country, like I was one of the people who got many free rides because and I would force myself to actually go to town, into town, simply because I have a free right and it's about to expire and I have to use it. And I would tell everyone use my code because I get um, the free right. So extrinsic motivation, so to speak, with every product.
Speaker 1:How many free rides did you get? Sorry, how many free rides did you get?
Speaker 3:How many? Oh my, I had, I think 34 free rides, 34? 34.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I had to use them in a scope of two weeks, so you can imagine I was up and about.
Speaker 1:You were traveling all the time.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Was there like a limit on, maybe distance, or was it just wherever?
Speaker 3:Just wherever? Yeah, it was more. And the thing is, if you use your Freeride, you get a new code that you can activate. So I think and it wasn't just about the extrinsic motivation here I think it was really just to get to experience this new way of getting a taxi.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I have like many examples. It's like literally just buying a blender, I'm the person who will read through the manual and test it out in every way possible, so I think that's naturally me. So it's being at hello tractor doing this is just an extension of the inherent innovation in myself. Okay, dang.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it seems like. It seems like your position at hello tractor really, really, really resonates with you personally, you know, and I think that's beautiful, because not a lot of people find that, in the job they are employed in, you know, yeah, like there's a there's a connection?
Speaker 1:yeah, like your personality and what you do, specifically at Hello Tractor. So, hello Tractor for those who may not know what Hello Tractor is, can you share what the company does and where they're located geographically?
Speaker 3:Cool. So Hello, tractor is an agricultural technology company that connects smallholder farmers across emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa with farm equipment owners with excess capacity.
Speaker 3:It's more like Uber for tractors, but we like to say way more than Uber. So we operate in a double-sided market and on one side of the market we have the farm equipment owners. These are your typical tractor owners and they need fleet monitoring capability so that at any one time, a tractor owner is able to monitor all the aspects of a fleet, for example, the location right. So if I'm a tractor owner and I'm based in Nairobi, I'm able to know where my tractor is. I'm also able to know the fuel consumption of my tractor, and this is big because it helps to mitigate theft. Also, things like the work that has been completed by the tractor, maintenance needs of the tractor and even a way for you to monitor your operators.
Speaker 3:Operators are the people that drive the tractor right, and then on the other side of the market is a marketplace of farmers. So we connect this tractor owner to farmers and this is done by community-based agents. These are people within a community who have trust networks with many farmers and therefore they are able to book tractor services on behalf of the farmer. And this is also mission critical because they aggregate this demand so that transactions are happening at economies of scale. So you have a scenario where a tractor owner would initially go five kilometers to service, let's say, five hectares, but then at this point a hello tractor, they will go the five kilometers still, but they will service way more like a bigger land, like 10 to 15 hectares. So that is what Hello Tractor is doing. We are currently in four main markets, so actually five main markets, and that's Kenya, nigeria, uganda, rwanda and Ethiopia, but then in total we are in 14 African countries. So the other countries are usually led by partners who collaborate with Herotractor to stretch out, in fact, those regions.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you mentioned having connecting at least the farmers to community agents who book the equipment on behalf of sorry. Connecting farm equipment owners to community agents who book the equipment on behalf of sorry. Connecting farm equipment owners to community agents who book equipment on behalf of farmers. So, tracking the statistics, tracking the you know how, the fuel consumption of the tractors, where they are located, you know who is operating them, what technology is being used to track, how do you track that?
Speaker 3:Okay, so a tractor owner has a tractor owner application and this is where they get to see all the aspects of the fleet. But for that to happen, we have a GPS telematics device that is installed on every tractor, so it collects data on the location, on the fuel consumption and any other aspect of the fleet, and so this data is shared to a cloud and therefore it connects to the tractor-owned application. Sorry, I missed that part and it's quite important.
Speaker 1:Okay, Okay. Yeah, I know, Daniel, food insecurity is something that's huge on the continent in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya and I know it's something that you're very passionate about, even with the initiative that you're working on, which we'll discuss at some point. But how? What was the state of food insecurity currently, and how is Hello Tractor helping to fill those gaps that exist as it relates to food insecurity?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 3:And you know where we, where we are at. We do think that for Africa in general to be food secure, there has to be a level of resilience right. There's an entire farmer production cycle that begins with land preparation, there's stuff to do with quality seed and fertilizer, there's intensification when it comes to planting, crop management, harvesting, post-harvest, and the cycle is large. And Hello Tractor at this point is focused on mechanization and how we try to ensure that we are also participating in causing the region to be food secure is by introducing climate smart agricultural methods or ensuring that we are promoting, or we are at the tip of the spear when it comes to regenerative agriculture, For example, plowing can when you plow your soil over time and again and again it actually causes the soil to be less fertile because it does damage the I want to say integrity of the soil pretty much the structure, the physical, chemical structure of the soil.
Speaker 3:But so we try as much as possible to promote minimum and non-tilling methods, because then it means that you're exposing your soil to better moisture. You're also maintaining the structure of the soil to ensure that there is fertility for generations to come. So that is one of the soil to ensure that there is fertility for generations to come. So that is one of the ways we ensure regenerative agriculture is happening and that is directly related to food security. Also trying to teach our farmers on climate smart agricultural practices like soil cover, crop rotation, and that is on the demand side.
Speaker 3:On the supply side, we are trying as much as possible to innovate right To see. Can we bring in electrification of tractors, for example? How can we incorporate use of biofuel as opposed to the traditional diesel? How can we ensure our farmers are planting crops that will produce this biofuel and therefore are contributing to carbon credits? So I think the issue of food security is all about really ensuring that farmers the customers, are resilient to climate change, to population growth and that this intensification of farming, and as long as the population is growing and as long as food is being produced efficiently and making sure that we are part and parcel of that systemic change of food production, then I think we can confidently say that we are promoting food security for generations to come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's actually really nice. I really like how you brought up the plowing in general, how it can be dangerous for the soil, because that's also something that a lot of people probably don't know too much about. But I just wanted to ask about, I mean, just desertification, right, and how that is a thing, how it may have been addressed, how it is being addressed, and it just seems as if you're knowledgeable in these things and, quite honestly, I wouldn't say that I know too much. So, just what are some ways in which you you see hello tractor making an impact in that regard? Or, like, just regarding climate change in general, in light of desertification, what are some things that, what are some practices that hello tractor promotes, because I know you mentioned, uh, specific methodologies that would preserve the soil for generations to come. What does that look like in light of climate change, and even the climate change that we can't really help?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think so when it comes to climate change the role we play is pretty much on causing our growers to be adaptive and also having ways to mitigate some of the adverse effects of climate change. By adaptation, I mean providing them with information. So right now, another you know something that is also on my innovation portfolio is looking at how we can leverage on a digital advisor to our farmers, right, and even truck owners, because weather plays a big role in the planning of service delivery for a truck owner. So adaptation looks like this so having farmers and truck owners very prepared, having the knowledge to know that in the next season the rains are going to be delayed, for example. And this artificial intelligence model looks at historical trends.
Speaker 3:It looks at and collects lots of information from weather, and weather is both rainfall and temperature, temperature being a proxy for seasonality. It also looks at things like socioeconomic activity, looks at agricultural intensity, the crops that have been grown, and trying as much as possible to also promote crops that can withstand things like drought and minimum, you know, rainfall. So it looks at many factors and then we're able to create a demand functionality like a demand predictive tool that is also very well advised by weather. And incorporating this to the advice we give to tractor owners and to farmers, then it causes them to be adaptive because, I mean, knowledge is power, pretty much so and it causes them to be able to plan better for the future and to be able to plant crops that will withstand the adverse climatic conditions.
Speaker 3:Another way is also mitigation. It's all about the now minimum till, no till. You're trying to mitigate the adverse effects of weather, so you want to ensure that what you have is optimum. The soil that you're working on is fertile and because soil I mean soil is pretty I wanted to say soil is everything, but I know there are other things, but soil is pretty significant so you want to mitigate being at a loss by doing climate smart, resilient activities. So that is how Hello Traktor tries as much as possible, to stay at the top of the inevitable climatic conditions that are actually affecting the growers on our platform yeah, so, um, also earlier you mentioned about how, um, uh, you brought.
Speaker 2:You mentioned how, if a tractor is being rented by someone five kilometers away to till the land, uh, yeah, I'm not sure exactly how you phrase it exactly, but I would. But you pretty much mentioned that where a tractor can can service an area that's five kilometers, it can do so one that's 10 kilometers. But pretty much the question I'm trying to get at is there is there a way that you guys can measure the um, the impact that you guys have had so far in the countries where you guys are based in, or like you know where you guys are based in, or like you know where you guys are present, and what does that impact look, like you know?
Speaker 2:yeah but like, how much have you guys serviced in total?
Speaker 3:that's good, that's a good question yeah so and yeah, I like, I like that that question because it's data related and yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:I mean, I love my data 55% of the farmers that we have serviced actually requested for tractor services for the very first time and, like up to 93%, have reported revenue growth based on use of a tractor as opposed to manual labor. The fact is that the tractors are cheaper. They are one third the cost of manual labor and they are 40 times faster. Meaning, I mean, if you want to do land preparation using people, it means that you would hire so many people who would take, let's say, two weeks to actually complete, let's say, an acre of land. But if you use a tractor, it's 40 times faster, two and a half times cheaper. It delivers uniformity, intensification in planting, but also increased yield. Actually, there's a gap of 50% of yield has actually been attributed to lack of mechanization, so the impact is crazy, right.
Speaker 3:So one of the reasons why we're not in a position to deliver as much as impact as we would want is because one of our biggest challenges is pent-up demand, where we have a dad of tractors, so we have way less supply of tractors than is necessary.
Speaker 3:So you get a scenario where farmers and our community-based booking agents are frustrated because they try as much as possible to book demand for a tractor but then you don't have so many tractors in a region so they still opt for manual labour and it's pretty sad because manual labour is it can be household labour, where you find kids and school going children being not going to school because they're busy doing land preparation and planting and harvesting, because that is a commercial uh, this is a way of, you know, obtaining revenue for the family, for example.
Speaker 3:So the impact is large and we try as much as possible to increase the access of tractor owners. Like we introduce a very first charter financing program. We call it pay as you go tractor financing program. So and this is focusing at these community booking agents, because we have observed that they have access to so much demand that they themselves can become charter owners and this is how we are stretching impact across all the regions we operate and this is how we are stretching impact across all the regions we operate in and so this model of financing.
Speaker 1:So, as opposed to having the equipment owners on this side, the community-based agents working with the farmers and then Hello Tractor in the middle, you have Hello Tractor helping the farmers or community-based agents to lease or rent and pay as you go right, as opposed to like doasing it from the tractor owners.
Speaker 3:What does that?
Speaker 2:look like or does Hello Tractor have an inventory of tractors as well? Is that a thing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so when we began, we were working with existing tractor owners. Right now, we are working with 4,500 tractors on our platform who service over 1 million farmers globally. And this connection between tractor owners and booking agents is made possible by around 5,000 booking agents in total, and the farmers are currently cultivating 3 million acres. That is the data we have on our platform.
Speaker 1:This is 3 million acres of land, right?
Speaker 3:so the question you asked is on how we try and manage the organizations. Pretty much so. This tractor owner wants to be connected to farmers, right? So a booking agent and this is where a booking agent comes in. And a booking agent can be anyone. It can be a cooperative lead. So this cooperative already knows the farmers, so they're trying to group farmers who made similar surveys at the same time and the same location. So it's very simple you log into an application and there's an entry form and enter a few details the name of the farmer, the crop that has been grown, the service of the tractor that is crop that has been grown, the service of the tractor that is needed and the time. And so you fill in as many farmers as possible and you send that request to and that request gets to the nearest tractor owner who sees that and is able to decide do I accept or decline? And so when they accept, they also provide a feasible date when they can go over and service that demand.
Speaker 3:So, it's pretty much that. So these are people who have been trying to do exactly that without Hello Tractor. So Hello Tractor only comes in to bring in efficiencies in this kind of transaction between a farmer and a tractor owner. So a booking agent who connects those two gains a commission from the transaction that a farmer makes to the tractor owner. So they gain around 5% commission for aggregating this demand and connecting these farmers to a tractor owner.
Speaker 1:Okay, Okay, and then, looking at agriculture as a whole, where do you see the industry going in the next 10 years? I know you had talked about artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3:Yeah, where do you see the?
Speaker 1:industry going.
Speaker 3:By industry do you mean agriculture in general or do you mean where hello tractor is going in the next 10 years?
Speaker 1:uh, actually both would be good, but I was referring to agriculture as as industry, but I think I would want to also know where hello tractor is going in the next 10 years yeah, I think yeah.
Speaker 3:So what is needed and what is mostly needed and what I see as a trend that is happening and might be where we will get at in the next 10 years, has to do with regenerative agriculture becoming a norm and not a new phenomenon to farmers and to all the stakeholders in agriculture. So, because this has to do with using organic fertilizer, for example, hybrid seeds, it has to do with how you do competition, even minimum, and not only ensuring there's intensification in planting. It's all about better ways, regenerative ways of doing agriculture. So I think this is where we have to get to, to even be food secure, for example. Like it's pretty sad If you look at our country, for example, kenya, we're still importing maize, for example, we're importing grain, and it's an enigma because we have so much land, we have 60% of our population being farmers, like being involved in agriculture, we have as much as like 35% or 40% contribution to our GDP and yet we are importing food, and yet we have debt, right, so we have a debt to pay and we are increasing.
Speaker 3:We are increasing in that debt because we have to import food. So why can we not grow our own food? Why can't we become like net. I do not remember the word, I don't have that word in my mind. But how come we cannot manufacture and how come we cannot plant our own food right? So stuff like that actually sadden me, because you find that when you import maize the prices are very low. So they do affect prices of the farmers that are working so hard to plant the maize here.
Speaker 3:So I think it has to do with if we can do these regenerative agricultural practices, then we are generating enough food. We become food sovereign as a country, even before being a net exporter of our own food to other countries, and I think sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to become one of the global breadbasket in the world but we have to really practice really good methods.
Speaker 3:So I think that's on agriculture in general, for health tractors. I think farmers need way more than mechanization. They need seed, they need fertilizer, they need harvesting, crop management. So our broader strategy going forward is to take our 3 million acres we call them engaged acres and cost a higher production. This is what we say, moving from engaged acres to highly engaged acres. And what that means is if we do mechanization on a piece of land, we say that we have engaged that acre. So if we provide more services other than mechanization, like fertilizer and seed, we say we are highly engaging that acre. Of course we don't have business to do fertilizer and seed. We say we are highly engaging that acre. Of course we don't have business to do fertilizer and seed and other stuff.
Speaker 3:There are people who are better suited to do that, but it looks like curating a portfolio of partners who are aligned in our mission and then working together to provide our farmers with these wraparound services and boosting from a productivity so that we are creating value across the entire farmer production cycle.
Speaker 2:That we are creating value across the entire farmer production cycle. I hope that's clear. I really like that. I really like that. Talking about regenerative agricultural practices, I wanted to speak to you. I wanted to just ask you about different types of farming methods, like hydroponic farming methods, aquaponic farming methods, vertical farming.
Speaker 1:Vertical farming. That was on my mind, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Things like that that seem sustainable, that seem, you know uh, better for the climate, although those things do require, like, a higher quality of attention to detail, um, and so on and so forth. But like, where do you see agriculture heading towards in in that regard?
Speaker 3:yeah, and because and these are very frontier types of farming, like I've heard about hydroponics and which actually it does involve uh like growing plants, uh, by using this water-based like mineral nutrients and having that in like an artificial environment, and I think that has so much value in spaces where, let's say, uh, that has drought or minimal rainfall.
Speaker 3:And there has been lots of experimentations that I have been hearing about. I think the wild food program is big participant in pioneering such kinds of frontier ways of planting and I think there is hope for that. There is hope.
Speaker 3:But I do think it's like the second step, after really trying as much as to withstand, or rather to hack, quote unquote to hack natural ways of planting food right, because if we can get the most out of the natural traditional ways, but making sure that we are incorporating newer conservation agricultural practices and we do our very best, and I feel like the second step would be trying as much as possible to now use things like hydroponics as a mitigation towards, let's say, climate change or really adverse effects of climate change. But I feel like the first step is let's really be successful with what we have. We have rain-fed agriculture, we have lots of rain, we have lots of land, we have so much working for us compared to other regions that are actually doing better than us. So if we can really leverage and maximize what we have, then I think that would really be the first step I'm more excited about that than other practices, but I think they're exciting.
Speaker 1:So the first step would be maximize effectiveness and efficiency as it relates to what we already have. Then second step would be exploring other forms of farming, like vertical farming, hydroponics and aeroponics. So for the second step, I'm sure people will be curious like why is that a good way to farm? Like how does aquaponics, hydroponics, vertical farming as a whole improve the farming environment or improve crop production?
Speaker 3:I would look at it as a compensation of something you lack, so it's better if you are having to get more from a situation that you would otherwise have lacked right? So, for example, the soil lacks in fertility and you want to experiment a scenario where you want to create an artificial scenario where you don't have to rely on the natural elements that are lacking. You don't have access to them, and so if you create that kind of artificial environment that boosts your productivity, regardless of the lack of the raw materials, then I think it's a really good idea and I think it helps everyone. And I think, yeah, it's a really good idea and I think it helps, um, everyone. And I think, uh, yeah, it is a compensation, so to speak gotcha.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, I see what you mean. So, pretty much practicing those things would be would mean, um, compensating for something you don't have, whereas in this case that we're currently in, we pretty, pretty much have everything that we need. In fact, I would go as far as to say we have so much that we haven't even used all of it.
Speaker 3:You know, or capitalized or maximized on all of it from based off of what I've heard from you, yeah, yeah and yeah it's just and not to belabor the point, but I do think, as a secondary level of growth, if we can maximize space, if we can cause our crops to grow faster, if we can conserve water, if we can reduce labor, and these are all things that are available right now, but I know not all the regions have the privilege of accessing these things.
Speaker 3:So if they are, lacking, then why not go big on hydroponics, for example?
Speaker 1:yeah. So if you weren't in the industry that you're in right now, what industry do you think you'd be in? Oh, wow, um so basically, what other interests do you have outside of you know?
Speaker 3:yeah, I think so so the thing is I'm literally into human behavior. Like, uh, in the first one, I I enjoy looking at human behavior and trying to see how people can you can change people's mindset. I think I'd be a preacher, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:I think I'd be a preacher, I think I'd be a lecturer, I think I'd be into social economics and human behavioral tactics Anything that really concerns people because I'm literally into people. I get fascinated at observing people, learning about people. I know so much about the people's psychology, even personalities.
Speaker 1:I love, I enjoy books like Daniel Kahneman, a great economist who actually recently passed on, wrote a book on thinking fast and slow Thinking fast yes, I enjoy such books very much and I think who actually recently passed on wrote a book on thinking fast and slow thinking fast, yes, yeah, yeah, I enjoy such books very much and I think it has to do with really gauging social environment and behavior and biases and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I would be in those fields definitely with that being said, what are some of the most interesting takes that you feel you have learned just from engaging with farmers from different regions of Africa? You know, like, what are some interesting social practices or cultural practices that you feel are interesting, to say the least?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like farmers are, I want to say, a peculiar group, but they're just special right. So, first of all, farmers are not risk takers. This, this is not um an industry where it's not like fintech, or um any like a service industry or stuff like that. So they're not risk takers. Because risk is so significant for them? Because if they try on something, let's say, they try a different methodology or they try a hybrid seed that has come into the market, and if it fails to them, this means that they lose out on an entire seasonality of food.
Speaker 3:That is not compared to, let's say, a tractor having a bad financial year, for example, because one seasonality of a farmer, then it begets the success or the failure of the next and the next, and so they are very risk-averse. Farmers also rely on trust, like trust is very important to this group of farmers the trust on people they work with, trust on people they take advice from. That's why we have leveraged that as our competitive advantage by having booking agents who become social capital, so to speak. Because if we have, let's say, a new piece of innovation or we want a farmer to adopt a new practice, we will not lead with technology and we will not lead with technology. Technology is pretty much even having SMS-based, let's say, communication and notifications to farmers. So we will not lead with technology, we will lead with this social capital that we already have, because trust is very important. Then you have and then farmers are very open, open to ways of incremental profitability. They become very excited if you can demonstrate something. So we do a lot of demo like we have demo plots, because it's not just a message. You have to demonstrate that if you use this hybrid seed, if you do this ripping as opposed to plowing, and if you use organic fertilizer, for example, you have this much increased yield and you demonstrate that for an entire season, for example. They see the results and then they will go hard after it because once they're convinced, they will drive it themselves.
Speaker 3:I like working with farmers because they're literal and they are willing to actually grow. They are willing to learn. I do feel like they're very disadvantaged in the sense that majority of them are in the rural population, like rural spaces in Nigeria, kenya, and therefore no digital and technology infrastructure reaching out to them. So I think we're all about trying as much as possible to bring that access them. So I think we're all about trying as much as possible to bring that access. They are the laggards and the late majority who will take on our technology. So having people like booking agent ease that communication and become the bridge between technology and the benefits, then that really works for farmers.
Speaker 3:I think that's all I have to say about my big loving group of farmers, loving group of farmers.
Speaker 2:That's yeah, that's beautiful. Would you say that there are some key, would you say that there are differences, um, that are, um, specific to these different regions? Like, what would you say are some characteristics that are specific to these different groups of farmers? Um, and how has, how has hello tractor, um, how has hello tractor had to conform to, uh, be more, more, um, approachable or engaging to these different groups? You know, like, how have you guys had to appeal to these different groups respectively, um, regarding their differences, unique differences, unique regions and so on, like adapting? Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they are different depending on regions, for sure, but also regions do represent different crops, right? So you have? In the west of Kenya, for example, a lot of wheat and rice and sorghum. Then in the central then you have crops like potatoes, and so different regions also represent different crops. Different crops represent different categories of farmers.
Speaker 3:So you have farmers who have very rapid, or rather faster, and regular seasons. Seasonality, for example, has three seasons. Sogham is only one season in a year and also it depends. It also affects how they engage with mechanization. For example, farmers who are doing rice have a different connotation of mechanization as opposed to farmers who are doing maize or potato.
Speaker 3:So potato farmers will easily do manual labor they're not so keen on if they lack mechanization. They're quick to do manual labor because the crop doesn't require so much intensity, especially on harvesting Farmers who do rice, for example, there's no option. It's like we literally have to do mechanization. It's easier, there's an easier entry to such farmers because the need is way greater. Easier entry to such farmers because the need is way greater right, the need to do to use combines, for example, to harvest is way higher than other crops that do not require mechanized harvesting, for example.
Speaker 3:So I think there are different dynamics to farmers and that also affects our message to them and our marketing of our services.
Speaker 3:And so we do try as much as possible to lead for farmers like potato farmers or these farmers that are not intense on mechanization, especially when it comes to harvesting. We try to appeal on things like post-harvest, post-harvest activities or ways to reduce loss of your harvest. So we are trying to introduce storage facilities to them, so creating value where it's needed most to finally capture them. When it comes to the need of mechanization, as opposed to how we lead with farmers that definitely need a planter or a plow to do land trip. So I hope that's clear and these diverse characteristics of farmers. It just informs Hello Tractor on scenarios and trajectories in dealing and engaging with these farmers trying to understand what they need the most, how they spend incremental profit on like what matters to them the most. Trying to understand what they need the most, how they spend incremental profit on like what matters to them the most. Trying to lead with that, whether it's as fellow tractor or through a partner, and finally getting them to also adopt mechanization.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like these farmers are risk-averse due to seasonal farming and difference in the kind of crops that they are producing, but they are also very results-driven once they have all the information that they need. From your perspective, would you say there needs to be more, or at least an increase, in the risk that is taken by farmers when it comes to adopting technology, or would you say where it is right now is good enough?
Speaker 3:Sorry, you were breaking a little bit. Did you ask if there needs to be an increase in how they adopt technology?
Speaker 1:Yes, but more so from because it sounds like they're risk averse because of, you know, seasonal farming yeah also results driven based, once they are shown exactly how x is going to lead to y in terms of crop production for them. So would you say that farmers need to increase? Maybe there needs to be an an increase in the risk-taking as it relates to adoption of technology. Or would you say it's fine where it is right now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's an interesting question. I think I wouldn't categorically say that farmers need to increase in risk-taking, but I think there needs to be a space within the farmer practices for experimentation and exploration. It's like if I were a farmer, for example, a modern-age farmer would I wouldn't be so risk averse as not to even want to hear the idea. I wouldn't also take a risk in my entire farmland. I would leave like a space of my farm, let's say like just a tiny little space to experiment with the hybrid seed that I hear of, or this new organic fertilizer that I hear of, or to experiment gripping.
Speaker 3:I do think that there's a space where they need to be more open to exploration. They don't necessarily need to embrace it in the form of an entire farmland, but I think there's a need for the experimentation and exploration even with just a small piece of land, also really just bringing in network effects and the role of community, where they can come together as a community and decide one acre of land in that community can be used for risk taking right, so that a community mutually benefits. Because, you're right, they're very result driven the moment they discover that there's more yield or better crop cover, that there's more yield or better crop, then they will go for it hard and quickly. So there is need for that kind of risk. It just needs to be done differently than either just in an experimentation kind of way or as a community coming together to explore something new.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay. So how can you know Africans in the diaspora contribute to some of the work that Hello Tractor is doing? And the reason you know we ask is our platform aims to connect the diaspora towards going on back home in the motherland. So how can those listening contribute to some of the work that Hello Tractor is doing across the continent?
Speaker 3:I think one of our biggest assets, which is also the thing that needs the greatest growth, is talent right, and we like to brag about the talent and talent tractor, because these are people, individuals who have proximity with the need or the gap or the problem that we are trying to solve.
Speaker 3:But this is also a very entrenched problem that we are trying to solve and it requires lots of skill and capacity and resource to do that.
Speaker 3:I think one of the really clear ways that people in the diaspora can help is really chipping in in form of knowledge and resource. Like we have all types of like employees here. Like we have data scientists, we have software developers, we have innovation enthusiasts, we have people in the management and it's a team that we have people that are experts in agriculture, and I think what people in the diaspora have is an exposure to knowledge and to skill and these and even to a really amazing work ethic right. So I wouldn't compare myself, for example, being born and bred here in Nairobi, to someone like you who's been exposed to pretty much everything, from technology to ways of thinking and literally just having exposure to an intellectual capacity and even social awareness, cultural diversity. It's just so much more. I think it's a blessing. So how they can contribute to the growth of Hello Tractor is by I mean we have fellowship programs, for example, and they allow or invite people who do not.
Speaker 3:So, let's say, you're not under money pressure and want to contribute your value to a space like Hello Tractor, you can come in for three months or four months and get to work with a team and get to exchange the skill and even bring on that kind of exposure to us. It can even be exposure on financial modeling, for example, because you have to do that on a day. There's a financial team that is geared to do that. So if we can equip hair attractors' talent and if employees are fully equipped and if they're growing on a faster pace, then I think we can tackle literally any problem that comes to us and we can contribute to getting this region to be a global breadbasket. But it starts with the people. So that's, that is one clear way. So please, y'all, please join us. If you can't, if you don't, if you do not buy into this, I don't know who will yeah, I understand, I get you, I get you.
Speaker 2:Agriculture is also something that you know I think I'd find out, not even I think I know I'll find myself into it. I know I'll find myself in that industry later on in life. I mean, even now, you know, speak on some things that you know, me and my people, me and my family, have going on personally in Nigeria. We're trying to, you know, get active in that area, you know. But, yeah, I'm excited to see where Hello Tractor goes in that regard and how it will, you know, become more of a more of a continental thing. You know, I mean, I know you mentioned that you guys are in about like four markets, four or five markets right now in Africa.
Speaker 2:I'm just excited to see how you guys, as a company, will grow and just have more of a reach across the continent, because I feel like, as agriculture becomes to, as agriculture starts to become more of a industrialized thing and a mechanized thing, I feel like you guys will most definitely be there to, like you know, help facilitate that. Um, and with you, you know, driving innovation at hello tractor as well. You know, I I'm excited, to say the least. You know, I mean you talked to. You mentioned about things I've never even heard about for real. You know about how. You know they use cell towers to you know predict rainfall.
Speaker 2:I'm like, wow, you know what I'm saying. And, yeah, I'm just, I'm genuinely just interested, I'm genuinely intrigued to see where, you know, agriculture goes and the continent moving forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me as well, I mean. I think just hearing you speak and seeing the range of interests that you have, even understanding human behavior, and you know finding ways to incorporate that in the work that you do with farmers, I think is something that is. It just shows how different disciplines can connect together to drive results. But, yeah, thank you so much, suzanne. We really, we really appreciate it thank you. Thank you so much for the conversation it was an interesting conversation for sure, for sure oh yeah, come, come, come, come.
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