Smartphone application delivers farm tractor services Uber style

A blue two-wheeled tractor branches off the Moi South Lake road away from the Nairobi- Naivasha highway and rattles its way into a nine-acre flower plantation in Naivasha.

As it slithers past six acres of flowering Gingerway and makes its way to another freshly-dug three acres of land in preparation of new flowers, all eight workers at the farm, two farm managers and six handymen watch in awe.

Introduction of the tractor at the farm has been a relief to everyone.

The work has been made easy as all the ploughing, chiseling and even harrowing to level the ground after chiseling, is done by the machine.

Now, all they have to do is pick the flowers in preparation for its exportation to a waiting market in Holland.

Charles Kamau, the farm manager recalls the days when the farm relied on manual labour.

“Ploughing with hoes was very tiresome. This piece of land had been overdone and it had become very dry. It was very difficult for men to dig deep to get enough soil to make the beds for the flowers. We knew we needed chiseling to raise the level of the soil,” Charles says.

He says the farm ventured into flowers in January this year after a one-year-cabbage stint for the local market.

But according to Charles, the land that had been overdone no longer had enough depth of soil to make beds for flower seedlings.

At the farm, they knew they needed a machine that would dig deeper to get the right depth of soil that would support raised flower beds.

All this, according to Charles, would not be achieved by mere hoes.

Thus with the help of referrals, the farm hired a tractor from Tinga, a mobile platform that facilitates joint access of farm equipment.

Farmers who use the app request for tractor services that include chiseling, harrowing, ploughing, spraying and planting. They are also allowed a choices like lawn moving and no-till planting.

John Mogire, Tinga’s Project Manager says the app exists to avoid exploitation of small scale farmers from middlemen.

“Most farmers have in the past used brokers to access tractor services. In the negotiations, the brokers put in their margin which makes the cost of accessing tractor services very high. The app does not put in this intermediary costs,” says John.

He says only a handful of farmers are able to own their own tractors because the machine is very expensive.

“And those who own them endure unnecessary maintenance costs yet the tractors are only used for two seasons. The rest of the time they remain idle,” says John.

To access any particular service, all the farmer has to do, according to John, is to first download the Tinga app from the app store on a smartphone.

After this, they provide their telephone contact and go on to request for particular services they require.

Once a request is made, Tinga makes contact with the farmer to get the details of their request including their specific location.

The team then engages their branch manager in the region specified by the farmer. So far, Tinga has about 10 offices spread across the country serving up to 200 farmers.

The app is installed with GPS antennae to collect real-time information in remote areas and to track its usage.

John says the GPS system keeps track of all the clients who subscribe for the tractor services and the specific services they request for.

A control system at the office also checks on the performance of the tractors to ensure that services requested for are only those rendered at the farm.

When Bernard Koech, the tractor driver arrives at the flower plantation, he explains that his first errand was baling hay for another farm in Gilgil.

On certain occasions, when Tinga runs out of tractors, they sub-hire the machines from individual tractor owners, such as Bernard.

Bernard is paid Sh3, 000 for baling in a single day. For Ploughing, his tractor is hired at the cost of Sh2, 000 in a day.

But for individual farmers who request for the services directly, the app also has payment options for different services offered.

Tinga charges Sh2, 500 for every acre of Ploughing or harrowing. For the machine to do ploughing, making of beds, planting or harvesting, a farmer has to part with Sh1, 500 for every acre done. Spraying is the most expensive service as it attracts a fee of Sh3, 000.

Charles observes the cost benefits and the efficiency difference between when he supervised manual labour at the flower plantation and when the farm enlisted for the tractor services.

For a 2-hour Ploughing done by the tractor, 10 men were hired to complete the same job in three days.

Where each man was paid Sh350 in a day, the farm spent Sh10, 500 to have three acres done in three days.

But where a tractor is used, Tinga gets Sh1, 500 per acre and in just two hours, the farmer parts with only Sh4, 5-00 to have all the three acres completed in two hours.