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Report paper for MyTractor system

Alex MWOTIL, Julius OKURUT, Ahmed Kiiza MABIRIZI, Brandon Elijah WAVAMUNO,
Mark Arnold LUBEGA

School of Computing and Informatics Technology, Makerere University, Kampala, P.O.BOX

7062, Uganda
Tel: +256-41-540628, Fax: +256-41-540620,
Email: amwotil@cis.ac.ug, juliuzkurut@gmail.com, mabiriziad@gmail.com,
brandonelijah099@gmail.com , markarnoldlubega@gmail.com
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ABSTRACT

Over the years the agricultural sector of Uganda has remained in its current level due to continued
use of traditional practices of farming by the farmers. An initiative to curb this vice was first started
by the government of Uganda in 2016 to provide 3 tractors per district so farmers can get access
to these tractors. [1] Due to the recent developments, many tractor operators have emerged,
providing various tractor services like ploughing, weeding, sowing, harvesting, among others. The
challenge still exists in that, many farmers in Uganda have not yet adapted to these modern farming
techniques due to various reasons that we were able to gather during our research on tractor
operations in Uganda. Our study was aimed at identifying the various reasons why there is still
poor tractor farming in Uganda, establish techniques of resolving these challenges and develop a
system that will ease the whole process from acquiring tractors till making final payments after a
productive service delivered. The members decided to carry out an interview with some tractor
providers farmers who have been using tractors and those that have never used tractors for their
farming activities. An interview guide and audio recording were the tools used during the
interview. A summary of our findings after interviewing tractor providers was ignorance of the
farmers about the existence and advantages of tractor farming, while on the side of the farmers,
the challenge was attributed to less accessibility of the tractor providers.

This document contains the introduction section, which describes tractor farmer current state in
Uganda, the methodology section, describing tools used for data collection, results of the study,
discussion of the result and the conclusions made from the results.
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INTRODUCTION

The agricultural sector is dominant in Uganda's economy. Whilst this sector grew at an annual
average of only 3.7 percent over 1990-99 compared to the far more impressive growth of the
industrial and service sectors, the importance of agriculture in Uganda's economy outweighs all
other sectors put together. The agricultural sector employs 82 percent of the workforce, accounts
for 90 percent of export earnings, and provided 44 percent of GDP in 1999. Uganda's key
agricultural products can be divided into cash crops, food crops, and horticultural produce. The
most important cash crops are coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco, and cocoa. Uganda is second only to
Kenya as Africa's largest producer of tea, exporting US$17.06 million of tea in 1996 and $39
million by 1998. The economy of northeast Uganda is dominated by pastoralism (cattle farming).
Although agricultural production is apparent in some areas, this is normally a mixture known as
"agro-pastoralism" (integrated cattle and crop farming).[2]

Mechanization of agriculture has the potential to contribute to increased productivity, quality and
increased quantity of agricultural produce. Therefore, in order to holistically appreciate
productivity particularly in Uganda, it is important for farmers to know that there is a link between
capital intensive production system, economic growth and mechanization. In order to maximize
the growth potential for agriculture in Uganda, a mechanized system approach should then be
implemented by farmers and other stakeholders involved in the value chain.[3]

Tractor

A tractor is a vehicle designed to give high tractive effort at low speeds for the purposes of hauling
agricultural implements. Tractors are generally classified by the number of axles or wheels, with
main categories being two-wheel tractors (single-axle tractors) and four-wheel tractors (two-axle
tractors). Services provided by the tractors include; Clearing and ploughing, Weeding, Harvesting,
Planting, among others.
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METHODOLOGY

A descriptive approach was used to structure this research because little was known about tractor
hire services and the researchers wanted to show what was happening on the ground at that
moment. In addition, the researchers were going to be in the position to describe events and then
organize and tabulate the data to what the actual reality of the phenomena was like on the ground.

The findings presented are based on primary data collected in 2019 from interviewing a sample of
6 individual farmer and from the feedback received from questionnaires that were distributed
online, from farmers who have been using the tractor for most of their farm activities and those
that had never used tractors previously, 2 tractor service providers, Tata, tractor owners around
Kampala, booking agents and farmers around Kampala Uganda. Data collection was in the form
of key informant interviews using a set of questions (interview guide) and Document review.

Data Collection Tools

In this particular study, we relied on both induction and deduction to collect and analyze the data.
The data collection tool for quantitative data that was considered to be appropriate in this research
is interview and questionnaire. Interview were conducted as a form of a discussion directed by the
questions the we had compiled, and then discussed in detail by the respondent, as the researchers
did audio recording and taking of short noted. Some of the questions we asked the farmers included
but not limited to;

 Have you ever heard about using tractors for your farming?
 How accessible are the tractor providers?
 What are some of the challenges you face while hiring tractors?
 What forms of payment do you use? Do you prefer any other forms of payment as well?
 What do you think can be done to improve tractor farming in Uganda?

As for the tractor providers, their questions included but not limited to;

 What tractor services do you provide?

 How do you get farmers to hire your tractors?
 Has fuel ever gotten done while work was still ongoing? How did you handle that crisis?
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 How is the pricing for work done?

 How do farmers make payments? Do you prefer any other forms of payment?
 What happens when you get caught up with bad weather, for example, heavy rains?
 What do you think can be done to improve tractor farming in Uganda?

An online questionnaire was designed and submitted across various social media platform of
farmers and feedback received and visualized as discussed in the results of the study section.

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS

According to the data collected from the service providers (tractor), one of the major challenges
they face is bad weather conditions. This leads to cancellation of the appointments made and thus
leaving the clients more frustrated, the collision of the schedules

Another challenge being a failure by the farmers to provide the exact size of land to be ploughed.
This leads to poor planning by the service provider in terms of how much fuel is needed, how
much time shall be spent at work, among others

Traceability of the farmer’s location is another challenge faced by the tractor providers. This comes
as a result of the absence of technologies used and poor communication between the farmers and
the service providers. The implication of this is extra costs in terms of fuel as the tractor providers
try to locate farmers.

Little or no information known about the terrain of the farmland to be ploughed brings an about
poor selection of the tractor for the service to be provided. This as well brings about inadequate
fuel estimated for the days’ work thus inconveniences, for instance, bouncing back and forth to
get the right tractors.

Increased expenses in which they have to transport their agents to first survey the land to see the
topology of the farmland and the terrain to actually know which tractor they have to use during
the ploughing.

On the other hand, the farmers find it unrealistic and more expensive to hire tractors to do their
farming activities. This comes about due to the lack of a uniform pricing system by all the tractor
providers. Thus, making farmers lose trust and interest on the tractor providers.

Farmers as well find it harder to locate and make tractor appointments due to the ignorance about
the existence of tractor providers around them.

There are very many steps and procedures farmers have to go through so as to make an
appointment with the tractor providers, for example, filling the application form with the booking
agent, visiting of the farm by the “Shamba Boy”, among others, this made the whole process
tedious and more tiresome thus making many farmers opt less for tractor farming.
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CONCLUSIONS

Having received feedback from the tractor providers and farmers about the whole process of tractor
hire and the various challenges faced by both during the process, we opt to develop MyTractor
system, that shall be able to navigate through the various challenges registered, and formulate the
appropriate solutions for these challenges.

Since it previous took a minimum of seven days to confirm the farmer’s request for the tractor
service, it will take less than two minutes making an appointment and booking with MyTractor
system.

From the analyzed data in the results and finding section, the price of the days’ service was defied
as a negotiation between the tractor providers and the system, which in most cases brought about
cheating to one party, MyTractor system tends to cancel all these discrepancies and provide a
wholly well-calculated price, that the farmer shall be able to see upon making their bookings, and
as well make an early payment of 60% that are subjected to refund in the service is not provided
by the due date.
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REFERENCES

[1] Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Agricultural mechanization,

https://www.agriculture.go.ug/1832-2/

[2] Agriculture – Uganda, https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Africa/Uganda-

AGRICULTURE.html

[3] Understanding farm tractors, https://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/Farming/Understanding-

farm-tractors/689860-4614152-kh2o0c/index.html
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APPENDIX

The online questionnaire

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