Antti Ritvonen is the chief executive officer of Dizengoff Nigeria, exclusive distributors of CASE tractors in the country. Ritvonen in this interview tells JOSEPHINE OKOJIE that despite various government mechanisation schemes, farmers still finds it difficult to get affordable finance for mechanisation investment.
What impact has Dizengoff had in increasing Nigeria’s ranking on global mechanisation scale?
Nigeria ranks half on the mechanisation scale in Africa and very far from the global average. The country is still at the very early stage of mechanisation and there is still so much tractors needed. We have a very long way to go but we need to start from somewhere. I believe the government renewed focus on agriculture will drive the country’s mechanisation process to make an impact on the sector and economy at large.
Whatever services Dizengoff provides to farmers be it tractors or greenhouses, we also provide after sales services. If farmers buy our tractors or greenhouses we provide them with after sales services where we train them on good agric practice and maintenance skills on the equipment obtained. Dizengoff is always looking for ways to improve our service and product offerings for the Nigeria farmer when it comes to mechanisation. We are the exclusive distributors of CASE tractors in Nigeria; we are very much into greenhouses and strong on irrigation solutions as well as supply of different kind of agro chemicals. We sell CASE tractors which is one of the world’s leading tractor brands. We have sold between 400 and 500 tractors in the last two years.
What are the problems slowing down the country’s mechanisation process?
There are two big problems in Nigeria slowing down mechanisation process. They are; the farm size and affordable finance for mechanisation investments. Most of the farm sizes in the country are small and this can be addressed when farmers come into cooperatives or clusters to create bigger units to make it easier to finance mechanisation. This makes it possible for smallholder farmers to easily access tractors. Despite governments supporting mechanisation schemes, it is still difficult to get affordable finance for mechanisation investments in the country. A good tractor cost about N10 million.
What is Dizengoff doing to assist the country in addressing these problems?
We have been cooperating very closely with other leading service providers in Nigeria and working with banks as well as different financial institutions to find finance solutions for farmers but we are yet to get some results on the financing area. Most commercial banks are talking about agriculture but there is no action. The demands the banks are making is too high for customers. The banks want us to provide a 200 per cent credit guarantee and another 200 guarantee from the farmers. The banks do not want to take any risks. Over all, despite schemes in place for farmers to get finance, there is still a lot to be done in that space and most existing schemes are very complicated for smallholder farmers who do not have a lawyer or a finance manager working for them to do all the complicated applications and processes on whatever the banks are asking.
Is Dizengoff looking at introducing two horse power tractors to the Nigerian market?
All the time we are looking at how we can improve our services and product offering to the Nigerian farmers when it comes to mechanisation. We are looking at how we can provide better solutions for Nigerian farmers and we are studying the possibilities of the two horse power tractors.
Most of the weather services we have in Nigeria are not farm specific and there are lots of applications helping farmers predict weather in other regions of the world. Is Dizengoff looking at bringing in such applications into the Nigerian market?
There is a knowledge gap of farmers in Nigeria and this is really a big problem and anything that improves the knowledge of the farmers is a plus because many farmers still use very old traditional methods. Dizengoff closely follow all the technical development that is in Nigeria and there is a lot of development which will improve the yields of farmers but we are not looking at them holistically because Nigeria is not ready for all of them. It is a step by step and we need to get some more basic things in place. There is a limited amount of big commercial farms that can really use all these technology and knowledge. That is why we give a comprehensive training to our customers on how they can really get the full benefits from their investment. Increasing farmers’ knowledge on modern farming techniques is very important and this is how Nigeria can grow its agriculture.
What impact does the current import traffic regime have on Nigeria’s food security?
There were problems in implementing the zero import tariffs on agricultural equipment. When the zero import tariffs were introduced for agricultural equipment, it took a year and half before it was implemented. This usually impacts the sector negatively and food security as well. For tractors, before now, the tariffs on fully built tractors are cheaper than the tariffs for semi knockdown tractors. This does not encourage tractors companies to build an assembly plant in the country that would have had a huge multiplier effect in terms of job creation, and economic growth and development.
Dizengoff is also a big player in the country’s greenhouse technology,what is the organisation doing to support exporters of fresh produce in Nigeria?
I think Nigeria’s focus should be the domestic market rather than exporting. There is still a huge gap between crop production and demand in the country. Nigeria spends a lot importing agric commodities we can easily produce. We need to start feeding ourselves. Nigeria is the seventh country in the world with the most fertile farming land for agriculture but our yields is still far lower than the global average. Dizengoff is constantly training farmers on good farming techniques and providing an after sales service to them as well.
