By Christian George
The federal government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with an American firm, John Deere, to receive at least 2000 tractors.
The US company would supply Nigeria with the 2000 tractors yearly in the next five years.
This was made known by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, stressing that the move is geared towards solving the problem of land preparation and mechanised farming across the country.
The Minister noted that the disparity between total arable land and those available for cultivation is partly due to the unavailability of tractors for farmers, according to Nairametrics.
“Then the issue of ‘tractorisation’. We have an MoU with John Deere where they are expected to supply 2,000 tractors per year for 5 years, but they are going to sell those tractors under a financing agreement.”
“And we have engaged the bank of agriculture to also come up with the modalities about how we can now give low-interest loans to farmers to get those tractors for those that are interested in it,” the Minister said.
The Minister also explained that beyond the MoU with the company, the federal government is also looking at ways to ensure farmers without the capacity to afford the tractors get to hire them through the “green imperative program”.
He noted that it is a $1 billion project financed by Deutsche Bank where service centres will be established across the 774 LGAs in the country where farmers can hire tractors as well as access other agro-related services.
