The Federal Government on Wednesday unveiled the National Agricultural Mechanisation Policy and the National Agricultural Mechanisation Investment Strategy to promote sustainable mechanisation, attract private investment and boost productivity in the nation’s agricultural sector.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, who unveiled the two policy documents at a high-level National Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Mechanisation with the theme “Anchoring National Food Sovereignty through Sustainable Agricultural Mechanisation Policy, Innovation and Strategic Investment” in Abuja, said that the new policy framework would shift agricultural mechanisation from a government procurement-driven model to a sustainable investment-based system capable of attracting capital, technology and entrepreneurship.
Noting that food security remained critical to Nigeria’s national sovereignty, economic resilience and stability, the minister explained that the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu-led administration had positioned agriculture as a key driver of productivity, prosperity and economic transformation.
He said: “Our responsibility as a ministry is to translate that vision into policy architecture, institutional coherence and practical pathways for investment and delivery.
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“The opportunity before us is therefore to build an ecosystem in which capital, technology, skills and entrepreneurship converge around one objective: making mechanisation commercially viable and widely accessible”, the minister added.
Kyari maintained that mechanisation extended beyond tractors to cover land preparation, planting, irrigation, crop protection, harvesting, processing, storage, logistics and transportation, adding that the government is seeking to establish a mechanisation-as-a-service economy that will allow farmers to access agricultural technology when and where it is needed.
According to him, the government has started the procurement and deployment of 2,000 tractors and more than 9,000 assorted implements and spare parts under the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme (RH-NAMP).
This is even as he explained that the investment strategy implementation would help in the establishment of a mega tractor assembly plant capable of producing between 2,000 and 4,000 tractors yearly in order to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imported agricultural machinery, strengthen domestic industrial capacity and create jobs.
The minister urged the youths and women in the country to actively participate in the emerging agricultural mechanisation initiative, describing agriculture as a growing opportunity for entrepreneurship, technology and wealth creation.
Kyari stressed: “Our youths must not stand at the edge of the mechanisation economy. They must own, operate, innovate and lead it.”
The latest measures by the government align with its Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Programme, which is projected to generate an internal rate of return of 30.85%, as the government seeks to attract $4.4 billion in investment and accelerate agro-industrial development.
Commenting on the programme recently, the National Programme Coordinator, Dr. Kabir Yusuf, said the SAPZ was designed to attract private-sector capital, increase exports, strengthen food security and promote value addition across the nation’s agricultural supply chains.
