TheCable

Abubakar Kyari, minister of agriculture, says Nigeria needs at least 72,000 units of tractors to successfully embark on mechanised farming.

The minister spoke on Tuesday during the food security debate at the house of representatives.

Kari said Nigeria has not made significant progress in mechanised agriculture, describing it as a “huge setback for us in the country”.

“Today we find out that people are just doing agriculture as a means of survival and subsistence. We have to make agriculture (as a) business. We have to turn it around,” the minister said.

“Today, I am not too sure if we have 5,000 tractors fully working in Nigeria. We need over 72,000 with what we have in terms of arable landscape.”

The minister said the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed last year in November with John Deere, an agricultural equipment manufacturer in the US to supply the country with tractors.

The minister said the MoU involves John Deere supplying the country with 2,000 tractors a year for the next five years.

“As I speak, they are in Lagos today and they will be arriving in Abuja this evening. We will hold a meeting for the second time with the partners that are here,” he said.

FOOD INFLATION

The minister said President Bola Tinubu has directed that 42,000 metric tons of assorted grains be distributed to address the food inflation in the country.

Kyari said the remaining 11,000 is for “strategic storage” for uncertainty that may befall the country.

He said the 42,000 is in the process of being distributed by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in collaboration with the office of the national security adviser (ONSA).

The minister said the federal government received 5,000 metric tons of grains from the Economic Community of West African States  (ECOWAS) which will be added to the 42,000.

He noted that  COVID-19, flooding, naira redesign policy, and smuggling impacted food production in the country.

“These issues have given the rise of food prices,” he said.