…To establish tractor assembly plant

The Federal Government yesterday unveiled the National Agricultural Mechanisation Policy and the Investment Strategy to enhance the adoption and implementation of a more coherent and sustainable mechanisation ecosystem.

While the Mechanisation Policy is designed to provide a sustainable model for agricultural mechanisation, the Investment Strategy is aimed to help move Nigeria from public procurement to sustainable investment; from fragmented interventions to bankable opportunities; and from government expenditure to a viable private-sector-enabled mechanisation ecosystem.

The country’s mechanisation investment strategy is also centred around the establishment of a mega tractor assembly plant with a capacity to produce between 2,000 and 4,000 units annually to reduce import dependence and build domestic industrial capacity.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, who unveiled the two policy frameworks at the National Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Mechanisation organised by TracTrac Mechanisation Service Limited yesterday in Abuja, said the unveiling of the two policy documents was about localising production, creating jobs and building a sustainable mechanisation economy.

He stated that the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme was not only centred around scaling up investment in mechanisation but also ensuring that the intervention was not measured by the number of machines alone, but by whether the machines become productive economic assets that are maintained and accessible to farmers.

Senator Kyari called on investors, youth and women to take ownership of the mechanisation economy, saying, “Nigeria is open for investment in agricultural mechanization. We are not seeking capital merely to purchase machines. We are seeking partners to build an enduring agricultural technology and services ecosystem.”

“Agriculture is no longer a symbol of neglect. It has transitioned into a domain of enterprise, technology and wealth creation. Our youths must not stand at the edge of the mechanization economy. They must own, operate, innovate and lead it,” he said.

The Minister cited Borno State as an example of state-level commitment, noting that His Excellency, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, had delivered 200 truckloads of fertiliser to farmers and unlocked more than a dozen solar-powered irrigation systems and sites to extend the farming season.

He also commended TracTrac MSL for training thousands of young Nigerians as mechanisation service providers and deploying small-scale tractors to smallholder farmers.

“This is precisely the kind of private-sector enterprise that the Policy and the Investment Strategy are designed to multiply,” he added.

In his remarks, the Executive Governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Zulum, lauded the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the agriculture sector, which is geared towards achieving food sovereignty and economic growth.

Prof. Zulum added that the Mechanisation Programme of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security would revolutionise the agricultural ecosystem.

While setting the tone for the dialogue, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, stated that the mechanisation initiative would ensure that Nigerian farmers have better livelihoods and boost food production.

In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Marcus Ogunbiyi, stated that Nigeria must be honest about the gaps that have held back agriculture for too long.

He noted that for years, farmers had carried the burden of production with inadequate machinery, high levels of drudgery, limited access to appropriate technologies and insufficient investment across the value chain.

He stressed that agricultural mechanisation was no longer simply about tractors and implements. According to him, it was about food security, productivity, rural prosperity, youth employment, women’s economic empowerment, private-sector investment and national competitiveness.

Dr. Ogunbiyi added that machines alone would not transform agriculture, stating that “a tractor without an operator is an idle asset. A machine without maintenance is a depreciating investment. Equipment without finance cannot reach the farmer.”

He asserted that the objective was to build a functioning national mechanisation ecosystem that connects machinery with finance, operators, maintenance, spare parts, digital systems, research, standards, farmers and markets. He emphasised that farmers must remain at the centre of all interventions and that technology must be matched to terrain, machinery to farm size, and finance to cash flow.

In his opening remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of TracTrac MSL, Mr. Godson Ohuruogu, said the dialogue marked Nigeria’s shift “from decades of conversation about agricultural mechanization to a ratified national policy and an investment strategy to give that policy weight.”

Citing TracTrac’s experience, he noted that mechanisation must reach the last mile. Through its operations and the ISSAM Project with the Mastercard Foundation, the company has reached over 500,000 farmers, catalysed over ₦2 billion in investment, trained more than 6,000 youth, women and persons with disabilities, created 3,000 jobs, and established 567 cooperatives.

Ohuruogu stressed that the policy must be judged “by what a farmer can feel in the field — a service that arrives on time, at a price they can afford,” and noted that the discussions would focus on financing, inclusion and technology. He added that ratification was not the finish line, but the starting line for implementation.

The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the National Agricultural Mechanisation Policy and National Agricultural Mechanisation Investment Strategy by the Governor of Borno State.