The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has raised concern over the slow pace of agreement between Nigeria and the tractor manufacturing company John Deere, saying if Nigeria is to get 2000 tractors by the year end, it should be getting 500 by the end of the first quarter.
Kyari raised this concern during a meeting with the top management of John Deere on Wednesday in Abuja.
Kyari said the meeting will help fast tract precisely when will the first set of tractors arrive in Nigeria, as the government expect the delivery of 2000 tractors by the end of this year.
“Because in our meeting last November, we were told that the CKDs, the ones that will be assembled at the Tata facility in Lekki, would come later in the year. But there will be some incomplete, well, semi-knockdowns that will come before that facility, even though those semi-knockdowns will be partly assembled at the facility.
“But we want to know precisely. Let us give ourselves timelines so that we monitor our progress and see how we achieve the desired objective.
“We’re in the third month of 2024, and we have assured Nigerians that we’ll have 2,000 in the year 2024. If we’re in the third month, we should have 500 by now on ground,” he said.
The minister said for Nigeria to be among mechanized nation, it requires 70,000 tractors to attain considerable level of tractorisation.
“Some places you don’t need much tractors, but power tillers for instance. And we’re looking at those areas that we can incentivize, not only on tractorization, but on power tillers where we can impact on the farmers,” he said.
On sustainability, the minister said those to handle the tractors would be trained to handle the machinery for effective operation and efficient management of the machinery. “And this was agreed upon for sustainability of the machines and equipment.
“Then the provision of a dashboard in the Ministry for monitoring and data collection, that is through the Tractors dashboard. And this will actually help in order to gather data on machinery operations all over the country.
“While the payback of the transaction comes from the project, which the managing director actually stressed, the managing director of the Bank of Agriculture, who was in the meeting at that time, also said the importance of the interface, because the current exchange to Tata John Deere, who is the local vendor, has to be translated to the off-takers, the off-takers money has to be translated into dollars for onward payment to the John Deere International,” he said.
John Deere and Tata International’s Managing Director, Africa, Mr. Stephan Gouws, said the company is ready to assist Nigeria set up a mechanization centres across the country.
“So, this mechanization center is becoming a business, its making money, and I believe that’s the most sustainable way to take mechanization to start. If we have a center which can fund itself, it’s not dependent on anybody else’s needs, and it’s making a profit.
He promised that the company will do boot camps, where operators of the equipment would be trained. “Because you can’t use the equipment effectively if you don’t know how to use it properly,” he said.
