The quest for a robust development in the nation’s agriculture sector is set for a huge turnaround with the plan of the Federal Government to drive Nigeria’s agricultural mechanisation programme with about 60,000 tractors.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, who disclosed the plan on Wednesday, said the programme would ensure a paradigm shift from subsistence practice to commercial agro-industrial farming for food production, procurement of agricultural processing plants, fertiliser production, among others.
He disclosed this while hosting participants of the Senior Executive Course NO 43(2021) of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State.
The Chief Information Officer of the ministry, Ezeaja Ikemefuna, in a statement in Abuja, the minister explained that mechanisation would enhance local technologies evolution with over 600 private sector driven service centres, tractors, farming implements, storage and IT facilities.
“This would address the challenge of feeding the nation’s growing population and achieving food sustainability, create jobs for teeming Nigerian youths and boost the economy,” Nanono said.
He informed his guests of the ministry’s plan to increase agricultural extension workers to 75,000 in various value chains for efficient food production and self-sufficiency.
In her remarks, the leader of the delegation and Director of Studies, NIPSS, Olufumilayo Para-Mallam, said the theme for the SEC 43, 2021, as approved by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was ‘Getting things done: Strategies for policy and programme implementation’.
She said the ministry was critical to sustainable development and diversification of the Nigerian economy.
