Mytractor system

Abstract

Agricultural production in Uganda is mainly dominated by smallholder farmers engaged in food and cash crops, horticulture, fishing and livestock farming. Most farmers in Uganda use rudimentary tools in farming. The Government of Uganda (GoU), through the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) is aiming at commercializing the agriculture sector by 2020 through agricultural mechanization and modernization at farm level and one of the statuary bodies playing a significant role in implementing this is the National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS). A key intervention area is in increasing farmers’ access to agricultural equipment such as tractors, bulldozers, graders, combine harvesters, forklifts, agro-processing machinery, farm tools, straw choppers, excavators, bowsers, transformers, among other equipment.

However, many challenges still hinder agricultural mechanization. These include poor access to information about the availability of the equipment, inadequate complementary infrastructure for using agricultural equipment, delayed initiation of procurement process, inadequacy and inappropriateness of some supplied equipment, absence of some spare parts, high poverty levels to mention but a few.

The main objective of the Mytractor System is to gather and analyse requirements, design, develop and implement a system which will provide a platform that effectively and efficiently offers tractor-sharing services to Ugandan farmers.

This report describes the steps undertaken to develop the MyTractor system. The system is to be used by farmers, tractor service providers and a system administrator who will manage and maintain the system. Mytractor system helps to overcome challenges of reliable tractor performance, shortage of high quality operators and fraud.