Local production of 2,000 tractors a year will boost food production, the minister of agriculture and food security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, said in Abuja on Friday.
It will also create jobs for farmers, especially women and youths, and enhance food and nutrition security, he said in a statement issued by, the assistant director of Information in the ministry, Mr. Ezeaja Ikemefun
The minister made the declaration when the Vice-President of John Deere Ltd. (a tractor manufacturing company), Mr. Jason Braintley, paid him a courtesy visit.
Kyari noted that the visit was a follow-up to a meeting between Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima and top officials of John Deere Ltd. at the Oct. 24 World Food Prize Foundation Day held in Lowa, U.S.A.
He said the Nigerian government would not buy the tractors but would provide the enabling environment to make them affordable to farmers on loan at a low interest rate so as to boost year-round farming.
The minister said farmers needed to form clusters or co-operatives that would buy the tractors to facilitate mechanized farming.
The farmers’ clusters or cooperatives could pay for the tractors in installments, he explained.
In his remarks, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Abudullahi, stressed the need to evaluate cooperatives and ascertain those requiring support to enable them to access the tractors when they are available.
He also emphasized the importance of identifying crops most suitable for mechanized farming.
Earlier, Braintley said the company was exploring the possibility of tractor hiring, acquisition, or local production, backed by after-sales services, the supply of genuine spare parts, and the training of operators and mechanics.
The tractors, he said, would have capacity ranging between 75 horsepower and 90 horsepower for use in different terrains.
