By Doris Esa
In November 2023, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, made a bold move towards mechanisation of agriculture.
It signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) with John Deere, Asia (Singapore) Ltd, to provide 2,000 tractors in 2024 for farmers to enhance food security.
The initiative was hailed by perceptive stakeholders as capable of solving the drudgery of manual farm labour and other challenges associated with food production in Nigeria.
At a recent technical meeting with John Deere Group in March, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, expressed optimism that the agreement was still achievable.
The minister said that government was tilting towards massive production of staple crops with the use of technology to reduce food inflation in the country.
“Basically, some of these tractors will go to service providers and service to provide service to smallholder farmers at a cheap rate.
“That is why we want to even make sure that they try and give these tractors at the lowest possible price to the farmers.
“We are also going to collaborate with the large scale farmers because they also contribute to food security.
“So, it is also important we engage with both the smallholder and large scale farmers.
“We are under-tractorised right now as a country and every journey begins with a step.
“John Deere is one of the largest agricultural equipment manufacturers in the world.
“I think it is the right step in the right direction: the Federal Government under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu has decided that this should work time.’’
Kyari said that mechanised farming was key to agriculture as it would support food production in the country.
“Tinubu said he is going to give us all the support for mechanisation and we will soon run out the mechanisation programme.’’
The minister assured farmers of rolling out tractors to boost food production during the wet season farming.
According to him, it will also create jobs for farmers especially women and youths and enhance food and nutrition security.
He said the Nigerian government would provide the enabling environment to make the tractors affordable for farmers on loan at low-interest rate so as to boost year-round -farming.
Kyari said farmers needed to form clusters or co-operatives that would buy the tractors to facilitate mechanised farming.
“The farmers’ clusters or cooperatives could pay for the tractors in installments, he said.
In the same vein, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Abudullahi, stressed the need to evaluate co-operatives and ascertain those requiring support to enable them to access the tractors when available.
He also emphasised the importance of identifying crops most suitable for mechanised farming.
In his exposition, the Managing Director, John Deere Ltd, Mr Stephan Gouws, said the programme included capacity building, technology transfer, among others.
Gouws said that the company was not out to sell tractors and leave Nigeria as others did in the past.
“The major thing we want to do is to increase the profitability of the farmers.
“It can be the smallholder farmer or large holder farmer; the goal of all these is to increase profitability.
“We want to build the community, and we have this programme running elsewhere in Africa.
“It is the largest progamme we are unlocking and we are really excited,” he said.
In another forum, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Olawale Edun, said that the importance of the agricultural sector could not be overemphasised.
He said that agriculture was one of the key sectors in the economy as it was the main objective of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Edun said that if there was abundant supply of food, there would be a reduction in inflation which would also lead to reduction in poverty as well as creation of jobs.
On his part, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, said that the Federal Government had taken measures to ensure the economy was stable.
He assured that more interventions would come to help farmers in the country.
Throwing his weight behind the move, the President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, (AFAN), Mr Kabir Ibrahim, said that the country’s quest to achieve food security would be expedited through mechanised farming system.
More so, Prof. Garba Sharubutu, the Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), said that food security and the industrialisation of the economy was at the center of Tinubu’s administration.
Worthy on note, the private sector have also keyed into the mechanisation programme of the Federal Government.
Mr Don Ekesiobi, the Group Chairman, Eurobase Consult Ltd., an agro company, said that the group’s target was mechanization and technology to tackle food inflation in the country.
Ekesiobi, who spoke this at the special agro equipment and technology expo in Abuja, added that the expo was in line with Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency on food security.
He said that the partnership with the government was to enhance agro produce export through mechanisation.
Ekesiobi said that the government could not do it alone without the support of private participation; hence, the need to organise a stakeholders’ engagement targeted to resolve the food crisis in Nigeria.
“There is a need for us to come together as a nation to brainstorm and provide immediate solutions in the form of short and long term interventions,” he said.
Ekesiobi said the programme provided a great opportunity to highlight the importance of sustainable food security.
Into the bargain, Mr Paul Ikonne, Executive Secretary, National Land Development Agency (NALDA), said the agency had expanded mechanised farming operations in Niger, Nasarawa, Benue, and Oyo states in a strategic move to improve the nation’s agricultural sector.
He said the farm estates, strategically positioned in the six geopolitical zones, were witnessing the successful harvesting, bagging, and storage of rice and maize.
He said the ongoing agricultural activities in the states were poised to make a significant impact on the nation’s grain supply, with a primary focus on enhancing the production of rice and maize.
According to him, the agricultural drive aligns with broader efforts to bolster food security and stimulate economic growth.
From the sub-national, Gov. Agbu Kefas of Taraba said he had distributed 850 tractors and other farm inputs to farmers in the state.
Kefas said the machines were part of his total commitment to making Taraba state the ultimate hub of food production.
He reiterated his earlier declaration that Taraba state could feed its populace and the entire country.
“Taraba state has no business with hunger; with our vast land and potential in crop and cattle, we are now prepared to become the national leader in food security,” he said.
The governor emphasised that farmers remained the hope of the state and the nation as hunger was seen as a threat to national security.
Observers are of the view that the age-old hoe and cutlass agriculture will keep the youths away from farming while the introduction of modernised machinery would make agriculture attractive to young people.
They say that the president’s promise to purchase thousands of tractors in the pursuit of a food self-sufficient Nigeria is creditable.(NANFeatures)
