‘Nigeria needs 746,666 tractors’ …FG plans 1,200 agric hiring coys

The Minister for Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has said that the country needs a minimum of 746,666 units of tractors to sufficiently mechanize agriculture.

The minister stated this through his Permanent Secretary, Mrs Ibukun Odusote, during an interactive session on mechanisation intervention programme, noting that the total number of tractors now in the country is about 30,000 with over 50 percent broken down.

“The low level of mechanization limits the ability of farmers to expand cultivated areas, perform timely farm operations and achieve economy of scale in raising food production,” Adesina said.

He said the ministry, through Public Private Partnership, will make available a minimum of 6,000 units of tractors and power tillers each and 13,000 units of various harvest and post-harvest equipment to set up a minimum of 1,200 Agricultural Hiring Enterprises (AHEs) to render mechanisation support services to farmers.

“I approved an intervention scheme to serve as a pilot, N3.6 billion have been released by the Ministry of Agriculture towards the financing of the Agricultural Hiring Equipment enterprise,” the minister also announced.

The fund, in the first phase, will make available 400 units of tractors, 500 power tillers and various harvest and post-harvest equipment to set up 80 centres, while phase II will achieve similar result. Phase III will acquire 250 tractors through the partnership programme.

At the end of the three phases, the intervention scheme would have brought in 1,050 tractors, 1500 power tillers and 2400 units of various harvest and post-harvest equipment such as rice rippers, grain threshers and cassava piling machines to set up 210 units of hiring centres to be located in demand driven locations nationwide.