The Federal Government has declared that Nigeria needs not less than sixty thousand tractors to tackle it’s food insecurity.
As part of effort to promote food production, the FG also reiterated its commitment towards tackling food insecurity through mechanization.
This is just as the government said it has established ties with the Brazilian Government to establish tractor assembly and manufacturing factories in some parts of the country.
The Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Sabo Nanono stated this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts to explain in details the purpose for supplementary budget of €995,000,000 million to finance agriculture projects.
The Minister noted that the contract between Nigerian and the Brazilian Government was signed five years ago but worried that it was not implemented.
He expressed worries that Nigeria is currently cultivating less than 30% of its ninety two million arable land mass, which is far below what is needed to feed its two hundred million population.
“Obviously, how do we go about feeding this nation? It is very clear that the current method of farming will not do it. So we have to go into mechanization.
“You must know as at today, we have only about seven tractors per 100 square kilometers. A standard is one hundred and twenty tractors per 100 square kilometers He said Nigeria needs an average of “sixty thousand tractors” for the purpose of food security.
According to him, a new programme, the Green Imperative Project which is intended to promote industrialization “would provide ten thousand tractors in the next three years and another ten thousand tractors in another three years.
He said service centers would be established in all local governments across the country with presence of tractors, hired skills and stores to support local productivity and job creation, to be private sector driven with the government playing a crucial role in key areas.
