FG to commence mechanized agriculture in 632 LGAs

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono has stated that  Agricultural Mechanization programme of the Federal government will kick-start  in 632 Local Government Areas in the country. 

Nanono said this when he received the Governor of Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom, in Abuja over the weekend.

Invest Africa’s sovereign wealth, pension funds in continent–AfDB president

He said the policy would ensure that Nigeria achieved food security, job creation and economic growth, which is expected to involve a full technology package transfer that would cover all stages, from agricultural production to industrial processing and marketing.

According to him, ‘’ each LGAs will have service centers and each centers will have a brand new tractor fully equipped with the admin and IT workshop, there would  also be stores for seeds, fertilizer and excess produce. With these, we will link farmers up with processing industries especially clusters at the local government producing the same thing will be provided with processing plants.’’

Nanono noted that the mechanization services would be driven by the people in the local government areas. He urged Nigerians to come up with proposals of how to manage the service centers, adding  that the Federal Government will guarantee the facilities.

He said, ‘’ the investment of potential manager of the service centers may not be more than N 5-6 million, but they will own assets worth the tune of N150 million for a period of 15 years.

 ‘’a tractor that works for an estimated N 60,000 -N75,000 per day, can make income of about N30,000-N40,000 per day  after expenses and with this the service centers can pay for the tractor in an average of 6-7 years and note that the  tractors can last for about 25 years.

“the loan we are getting can only finance 10,000 tractors, the gap for improvement in terms of bridging the gap in Agricultural mechanization is so huge. 

But we hope that this will work very well so that the private sector can drive it.’’

The minister who acknowledged the partnership of the Benue state government noted that the Ministry is really concerned about soya beans production, adding that Nigeria has enormous market potential for soya beans in China.”

In his remarks, Gov.Ortom assured the Minister of the state’s commitment to partner with the Ministry, he said, to ensure provision of food security for Nigeria and beyond.