Tractor Donations Should Be Streamlined

By Joshua Kato

Last week, the Minister of Agriculture Animal industry and Fisheries handed over sets of tractors to farmers across the country.

However, while some of these have been effectively used to improve production, some and many of them have not been used well.

In some cases, very few farmers in a group are using it which means that it is redundant most of the time. In other cases, the tractors are broken down and the farmers do not have resources to maintain them. This is because some of the members don’t want to pay for the tractor.

They call the operator to go and work on their farms and then tell him that they will pay later. The government must set up stringent conditions before a tractor is handed out. For example;

• Beneficiary farmer organisation must be registered at least up to district level
• Total operation acreage must be at least 50 acres
• The group should have clearly operational modalities with a proper record of leadership etc
• The farmer group must have a minimum of 20 active members
• The group should avail a competitive bankable business/tractor hire service plan
• There should be evidence of conducting profitable ventures
• Commitment to using only qualified personnel to operate the machine If the beneficiary is a nucleus farmer:
• He has to be a model farmer in his area n Have at least 40 acres of land available for agricultural production n Commit to offer tractor hire services to the surrounding community
• Provide proof of past experience in managing similar assets or have trained personnel to manage them.