The Federal Government on Thursday signed an agreement with an international tractor manufacturing firm to provide 10,000 tractors to rural farmers across the country.
According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, the project will ensure effective delivery of the tractors to farmers in the 774 Local Governments Areas of the country through the 2,500 Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises to be established in the respective locations.
The agreement was signed between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Nigerian Agricultural Mechanisation and Equipment Leasing Company and John Deere Tractor Manufacturing Company, in Abuja.
Ogbeh stated that for over 30 years, the Federal Government had repeatedly made efforts to address the agricultural mechanisation challenge in Nigeria, a development that affected the sector adversely.
He said the project would be closely monitored as farm inputs were being distributed across the local governments.
The minister said the initiative would help increase food production, adding that the government’s expectation was to realise one million tractors in 15 years.
He applauded the farm equipment hiring associations for their ingenuity, stressing the need to improve on the relationship with John Deere.
“In the next 15 years, we should be looking at something close to a million tractors in this country because dry season and irrigation agriculture has to grow. Not every farmer needs a tractor, not every farmer should or can afford a tractor, and since the bulk of our farmers are smallholders, they rely on the services you (John Deere) provide.” Ogbeh added.
Meanwhile, about 20 private firms have indicated interest in the Federal Government’s silo concession plan, the Acting Director, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Mr Chidi Izuwah, has said.
Izuwah made this known on the sidelines of the signing of the MoU between the Federal Government and John Deere Tractor Manufacturing Company.
The ICRC acting director, who noted that the firm was notable across the world, said the move would improve the management of grains and reduce post-harvest losses.
He said that it would also create wealth for farmers involved in grains production.
“We have about 30 silo complexes built by the Federal Government in the country and some of them are under-utilised and abandoned,” he was quoted as saying by the News Agency of Nigeria.
Izuwah said that although the Federal Government would concession about 22 silos, it had maintained the management of about two to four silos for its strategic grains reserve.
He noted that the concession would last for 10 years, adding, “We have worked with the strategic grains department of the ministry to run a competitive and transparent process to bring in private sector partners to come in and take over the silos, refurbish them and put them to use for post-harvest management.
“This will significantly change the agricultural value chain because the government doesn’t have enough”.
