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The MoU was made known at the 2022 Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held recently in Tunisia.
According to the Managing Director of Mitsubishi Corporation Nigeria, Makoto Sato, the partnership offers the opportunity to Mitsubishi and other Japanese corporations to team up with agricultural technology startups like Zowasel to facilitate access to affordable agricultural machinery for smallholder farmers.
He said through a sustainable platform like Zowasel, can directly impact farmers by reducing manual labour and increasing their income and quality of life.
According to the terms of the agreement, Mitsubishi would coordinate and facilitate the entire partnership, while Honda would provide Honda-made agricultural machinery with technical and maintenance support.
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Also, Standage will manage the sourcing and importation of Japanese-used machinery for the project and establish an ecosystem for Japanese-used farm machinery in Nigeria.
On its part, Zowasel will be responsible for implementing and executing the machinery rental services through its remote Crop Centre infrastructures in Nigeria. Zowasel will also provide good agricultural practices (GAP) training and ultimately create market access through its Marketplace platform.
Mitsubishi partnered with Zowasel in early January 2022 and provided agricultural machinery such as harvesters, tractors, planters, and tillers to run a proof of concept of the mechanisation rental services in Nigeria.
It was learnt that the partnership will offer opportunities to improve productivity significantly in food security and the quality of life of smallholder farmers across the country.
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