Members of the ag community have donated equipment or helped repair machinery over the last few months
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Whenever communities are in need, the ag community shows up when called upon.
With that at top of mind, here are a few recent examples of people working in agriculture helping their communities, and others using agriculture to help communities abroad.
A church group in the United States shipped a donated Case International 245 tractor to Liberia in December.
Rev. Tim Beardsley, a pastor with the Ebenezer United Methodist Church in Rising Sun, Md., spent time in Liberia between August and September 2021 and witnessed how workers there were performing farm work.
“They are mowing 20 acres with machetes,” he told the Star Democrat on Feb. 4. “Their tractor broke after the civil war. They were praying for a tractor.”
One member of the church group helped acquire the tractor and another serviced it before it left for Liberia.
Also in December, a group of farmers held a tractor procession outside of a British hospital to support a stroke patient.
About 40 farmers drove past the Jamet Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, to support Dave Chapman, a local tire repairman.
“If you’re in a hospital, you don’t feel well, and you see all these tractors going around, it must make people feel a bit better, hopefully, Oliver Roberts, one of the farmers involved, told the BBC.
The farmers also raised £400 (US$541) for the hospital’s stroke ward.
In January, Case IH donated a JX75T tractor to Canda and Dala Dungue, two rural communities in Angola that have about 200 hectares (494 acres) of farmland combined.
And local Case IH dealer, Multiauto Angola LDA, is providing implements and operation and maintenance training.
The diets in those two communities is based on cassava, but this new tractor and implements will help farmers explore other crop options.
“The new machinery will assist the communities to increase productivity in their current crops as well as allow for diversification,” José Dias da Costa, general manager of Multiauto, said in a statement.
In British Columbia, a group of mechanics have been traveling to farms on Sundays.
These farm operations were affected by recent floods, and the repairmen are helping the producers get back on their feet at no charge.
As of Jan. 20, the group of mechanics, known collectively as the Chardi Kala Tractor Sewa Group, have repaired almost 25 tractors.
“It’s about an hour drive, but it’s worth it seeing the guys and the look on the farmers’ faces when we get their stuff running,” Jatinder Singh Rakhra, one of the mechanics involved, told Global News.
The crew estimates it will be conducting these Sunday visits into the spring.