Agricultural innovation is certainly on the rise on the continent with reports that a Nigerian engineer Timothy Addigi Terfa is set to launch a locally built tractor.

Terfa reportedly called the tractor Ijodo, meaning labour in the Tiv language and said: “I designed and built this tractor, which is 100% Nigerian, with a team of skilled individuals”.

The multi-purpose tractor is a welcome invention and it is expected to ease the burden of farming in a country and continent where mechanisation remains a neglected element of agricultural and rural development.

The tractor which is 100 percent designed and built in Nigeria could certainly be a game changer considering indications that labour costs for agriculture in Nigeria continue to rise while levels of mechanisation remain low.

Such agricultural innovation are laudable. Early this year, a Ugandan research team at Makerere University’s Agricultural Research Institute, one of the country’s top research units unveiled a multi-purpose prototype tractor.

The tractor dubbed MV Mulimi, was designed to perform several purposes apart from the conventional ploughing and transporting of crops and it was expected to benefit farmers in Uganda and across Africa.

Photo: BBC

Source: ThisIsAfrica