Christopher Metzger
Digitizing Agricultural Services in Kenya
This past summer, I served as an Impact Fellow for Hello Tractor—an agriculture and technology company—in-person in their Nairobi office. Through an IoT platform and mobile applications, Hello Tractor looks to increase access to mechanization services in Africa while at the same time helping tractor owners grow their businesses through remote monitoring of tractors, route optimization, and acreage calculations of farms. My fellowship focused on measuring the company’s impact on tractor owners (their primary customers) and what the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been. While conducting a phone call survey of 35 tractor owners, I also gauged interest in Hello Tractor’s new pay-as-you-go (PAYG) program which would provide affordable financing to purchase new tractors and implements. I presented my major findings from the interviews to Hello Tractor’s senior leadership and added metrics to promotional materials for their SEED fundraising round.