…1.2m farmers to benefit

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – THE Federal Government has commenced distribution of 2000 tractors to Mechanized Service Providers, MSPs, nationwide for farmers to have easy access and prompt services to produce food in a large scale.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food, Senator Abubakar Kyari, disclosed this in his speech at Sheda in Abuja, while explaining that the tractors are not meant for individual ownership.

According to Kyari, each tractor deployed comes with two years of free service support, and will be well maintained along with genuine parts replacement, asset longevity, sustainability, and discipline performance management, and deployment of 36 mobile service trucks for rapid first-line technical response.

He added that government is constructing seven mega mechanisation service centres across the nation, and also to establish one mega tractor assembly plant capable of producing between 2,000 and 4,000 tractors annually.

A comprehensive agricultural financing ecosystem envisioned by President Bola Tinubu through a N50 billion Naira catalytic seed fund with the Bank of Industry.

He said: “It is with both pleasure and joy I stand today at the threshold of history, under the visionary leadership of President Mbola, I am a tenable GCFR, as we flag off the largest single agricultural mechanisation programme ever undertaken on the African continent.

“This is not merely an equipment rollout, it is the ignition of a national agricultural productivity revolution, ending the long era of low tractor density in Nigeria.

“Through the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme, we are deploying 2,000 heavy capacity tractors and over 9,000 precision implements under a rigorously engineered national framework.

“This first tranche of 600 tractors marks the beginning of a phased acceleration. This will be followed by 750 tractors, and 650 tractors culminated in a nationwide force of 2,000 mechanisation assets.

“It is imperative to inform you that over 100,000 applications were received for this first phase alone.
That is not merely an interest, that is confidence in leadership.

“Today we prove that Renewed Hope is not just a slogan, it is a structured execution. In line with Mr. President’s vision that scale must drive impact, these tractors are not distributed for private ownership.

“They are entrusted to Mechanisation Service Providers, MSPs, where each tractor with the capacity to service approximately 600 hectares per year becomes not just a machine but a multiplier of productivity.”

Meanwhile, according to him, Many of these MSPs are youth and women-led enterprises operating under a lease-to-own model.

He also said it is not just 2,000 beneficiaries, but 1.2 million farmers are to benefit from the services across over 1.5 million hectares annually.

He further stated that, “It is about national food sovereignty. Beyond procurement and sustainability lies the structure.

“The Bank of Agriculture, in collaboration of Haifa International, is strategically positioned to deploy structured financing models, leasing higher purchase, service aggregation, and performance-based access systems that guarantee equitable access, financial discipline, asset sustainability, and measurable development impact.

“These tractors will not sit idle. They will work and multiply productivity. They will generate value across agricultural value chain.

“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security stands as a sovereign steward, providing policy authority, standards governance, configuration control, lifecycle asset management, quality assurance, performance monitoring, strategic feedback systems, and national capacity building.

“This is not just equipment distribution like I said earlier. It is a governed transformation as mechanisation provides the horsepower, the finance, the finance provides the liquidity, and policy provides the stability.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Aliyu Abdullahi in his remarks assured that there will be equity in the distribution and access to the tractors and other equipment saying, “There will be no marginalisation, and I want to acknowledge that, of course, the women group have come out charging in full throttle to show that, yes, mechanisation is what should happen because 70% of agricultural production processes are anchored by women.”