Example of shared economy in action as Vaya Tractor announces bold plans

EARLY this week Vaya Tractor announced plans to plough over one million hectares of land for smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe this year alone.

Vaya Tractor is an On Demand logistics platform developed by Cassava Smartech, the diversified fintech and technology company listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

Cassava Smartech Zimbabwe CEO Eddie Chibi said this week that the platform was engaging the Government and farmers to help with this season’s ploughing.

“We have the capacity to do at least one million hectares as long as support is provided for financing the farmers, as well as ensuring there is enough diesel for the tractor owners,” Chibi said.

He said Vaya Tractor already had 3 000 tractors on its platform and over one million smallholder farmers registered with its EcoFarmer network.

The announcement came less than a week after a Cabinet Minister, officiating at the the launch of the service, acknowledged that the country had a huge deficit of agricultural mechanisation equipment.

Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Perence Shiri said: “We have a deficit of 33 000 tractors, 10 000 planters and 500 combine harvesters and the introduction of Vaya Tractor)therefore complements our efforts and will help ensure there is efficient utilization of available resources and a boost in productivity.”

Given the number of pressing priorities that the Government is faced with in the amidst of a struggling economy, the idea of a technology platform that enables farmers to easily access and share a pool of tractors could go a very long way in reducing the current deficit of tractors and boosting farm productivity.

Productivity in agriculture and national food security will ensure that the foreign currency used to import food is saved and allocated elsewhere, with the possibility of generating additional forex if there are surplus yields.

Chibi said the Vaya tractor platform works in the same way as the Vaya carpool service and a farmer can request a tractor in much the same way as someone makes a request for a Vaya carpool ride (which gives a ride to several people).

“If there are a number of farmers in an area, we send a tractor,” Mr Chibi said. With 3 000 tractors already on the Vaya Tractor platform, one tractor hired by 11 smallholder farmers during the ploughing season would, at least in theory, wipe off the current 33 000 tractor deficit.

If the service goes according to plan, and is half as successful as the Vaya car service has been in the urban areas, it will result in significant savings for farmers, while rewarding and creating additional income to tractor owners whose tractors are not fully utilised during the ploughing seasons.

The BnB, Uber, Vaya Carpool and similar platform-based business models have thrived by providing reach and access to millions of people, using existing assets in the hands of many owners at a competitive price, significantly pushed down by the volumes and scale, and by the zero startup capital costs afforded through the use of existing assets.

It is what has become known as the shared economy, and it suits emerging markets such as Zimbabwe by virtue of the low capital start up costs.

Vaya Tractor, Zimbabwe small holder farmers and tractor owners could therefore be on to something much bigger than currently meets the eye – as far as the nation’s long term food security and a win-win approach to the business of farming is concerned.