The Federal Government has disclosed plans to establish a mega tractor assembly plant with capacity to produce between 2,000 and 4,000 units annually.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari stated this after unveiling the national agricultural mechanisation policy and the national agricultural mechanisation investment strategy, yesterday, in Abuja.
Kyari said the twin instruments provide the framework to move Nigeria from agricultural potential to agricultural powerhouse, from mechanisation deficit to mechanisation leadership, and from food vulnerability to food sovereignty.
He disclosed that the plant is aimed at reducing import dependence, localize production, create jobs, and build a sustainable mechanisation economy. The minister explained that it takes more than land, good intentions to produce efficiently, and sustainably to build a good food system.
He clarified that mechanisation is not synonymous with tractors alone, but a full ecosystem covering land preparation, planting, irrigation, crop protection, harvesting, processing, storage, logistics, precision agriculture, digital technologies, financing, insurance, maintenance and after-sales services.
According to him, Nigeria must build a mechanisation as a service economy in which technology reaches the farmer when and where it is needed, at a cost that is commercially viable and sustainably financed.
