AGCO committed to Grow Africa & G8’s New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security
AGCO is committed to “The Grow Africa” initiative and the G8’s New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security. “A continent like Africa has significant potential for growth in the agricultural sector: With 11 percent of the world’s arable land (86 percent...
AGCO committed to Grow Africa & G8’s New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security
AGCO is committed to “The Grow Africa” initiative and the G8’s New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security. “A continent like Africa has significant potential for growth in the agricultural sector: With 11 percent of the world’s arable land (86 percent...AGCO is committed to “The Grow Africa” initiative and the G8’s New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security.
“A continent like Africa has significant potential for growth in the agricultural sector: With 11 percent of the world’s arable land (86 percent of which is uncultivated) Africa would benefit from modern, mechanized farming techniques,” explained Hubertus Mühlhäuser, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Europe, Africa, Middle East. “AGCO’s technology-driven products will contribute to the modernization of the African agricultural market, and the local presence will allow AGCO to better serve African customers with high quality products and services. Our commitment is a response to the African Union, NEPAD and the World Economic Forum’s commitment to promote Grow Africa and the commitments of G8 Members to align their support to the countries agricultural development objectives as well as the Government’s commitment to promote a business enabling environment that provides confidence to both the domestic and international private sector to achieve these objectives.”
With over 50 years of experience in Africa through its Massey Ferguson brand, AGCO already leverages alliances with governments, foreign investors and donors to improve agricultural practices in Africa. Hubertus Mühlhäuser: “The solution for African agriculture is to develop a systematic approach that develops a strategic partnership to deliver crops that feed an increasing population in an economically, environmentally and socially responsible way. With decades of dependency on food aid and the world’s fastest population growth, Africa’s long-term prospects will require increasing degrees of self-sustainability. While the challenge is enormous, the opportunities are both substantial and achievable. Local farmers are among the main beneficiaries of agricultural development and are at the very core of the solution.”
In Africa, AGCO is focusing on increasing the scope of its product offering and improving its distribution and training of local farmers. The company plans to fund the development of Future Farms and Training Centers in Zambia, Ethiopia, Morocco and South Africa that will allow local farmers and dealers to be trained on new farming technology to enhance productivity and efficiency – and in this way create better food security. AGCO also plans to assist in providing equipment-financing solutions for small farms with little to no working capital. In addition, AGCO is investing in its after-sales service infrastructure in Africa by establishing a master parts warehouse in Johannesburg to ensure excellent parts availability, machine uptime, and better service levels to their local distribution partners and customers.
AGCO intends to provide a complete set of regionally specified agricultural solutions and modern technologies to more than 25,000 smallholder farmers in the next few years. The focus will be on localization, customer centricity, access to technology and mechanization, and capacity building. AGCO will partner with local African countries and support the modernization of African agriculture to improve food security.
