Women empowerment in agriculture is something we at Tractor on the Go (TOG) consider important in our sector. According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, women account for 75% of the farming population in Nigeria. Therefore it is vital to us to ensure they are empowered, and fully nurtured in their contributions to the sector.

With the support of USAID, we (Tractor on the Go) have commenced a skills empowerment program in tractor operations targeted at women and men across different communities.

Last week Wednesday, 13th April 2022, our team in partnership with Ebonyi State University’s Faculty of Management Sciences executed an empowerment training program in Ebonyi State to this effect. This training brought over 50 women and men in from communities in the state to learn about farm mechanization, tractor operation, and its benefits to them, farmers, and the country at large.

The training, which lasted for 2 days, featured theoretical and practical classes both in English and the state’s local language: Igbo. Communicating locally effectively helped us deliver a more impactful and interactive training with no language barrier or difficulties.

At the end of the program, our participants were able to understand the fundamentals of tractor operations and the advantages mechanization can offer to them.

Prior to this training in Ebonyi state, we executed a pilot version in Badagry where we had over 120 participants with 12 women in attendance.

The training program titled “Tractor operation training and workshop for mechanized farming” is in line with our move to create more channels and opportunities for rural farmers to access mechanized equipment for their farming operations in 5 communities via the support of USAID. Recall that, last year, TOG was selected as one of 13 mid-stage companies of the USAID Nigeria Covid 19 food security challenge winners.

It is important for us to drive women empowerment schemes like this because we understand tractor operation is a male-dominated area, which alienates women’s contributions. Given the fact that women make up a larger percentage of the workforce in agriculture, we believe that encouraging, empowering, and giving women opportunities to learn and do more in this field can yield higher results for their farms, themselves, and the country.

This publication is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Resonance and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.