The federal government has opened discussions with Chinese agricultural/construction machinery vendors to boost the current administration’s agricultural transformation agenda as well as achieve food security.
This followed a closed-door session between top officials of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security led by Director, Mechanisation Department, Sule Majeed, and officials of Tee-Pama Nigeria Limited, vendors of the Chinese YTO Group Corporation in Abuja.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, the ministry’s Head, Procurement and Administration Department, Akintunde Akinkumi, said the government remained committed to fostering partnerships to effectively drive the agriculture mechanization in the country.
He said under the partnership agreement, Chinese Group will through their local partner, supply 85,000 farming and construction machineries and implements to boost the current administration’s Renewed Hope agenda, particularly in revolutionizing the sector.
He told THISDAY that the supply would be carried out within two years with back up components and spare parts to be distributed to the 774 Local Government Areas with one- or two-years warranty to the federal government.
Akinkumi said, “A large number of YTO tractors samples were to be procured by the federal government for about five state governments which included Kaduna, Zamfara, Kano, Ebonyi among others, as the preliminary phase for the implementation of the Agricultural Mechanisation System (AMS).
