Nigeria is expected to receive it’s first batch of tractors from Brazil in the first quarter of 2022.
This development is part of efforts to speed up its mechanization programme in the agriculture sector.
It was revealed that an overall amount of 10,000 tractors were expected from Brazil under the Green Imperative Project.
The federal government signed a $1.2 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Development Bank of Brazil for agriculture mechanisation in Nigeria.
The government intends to improve agriculture mechanization and set up modern agro centers across the country with the credit facility.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, said the Green Imperative programme which is expected to address the long standing agricultural mechanization problem is underway.
According to him, the programme would ensure adequate supply of tractors and other implements to farmers on a public private partnership arrangement. The model adopted is sustainable and would ameliorate the low production challenge due to lack of sufficient machineries.
Abubakar also stressed that the Federal Government has lifted a total of 4,205,576 Million Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years.
He said that it was achieved through the Ministry’s strategic policies and programmes and by extension the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020 of the President Muhammadu Buhari led Government, which sees agriculture as the alternative to oil for meaningful economic diversification.Dr. Mahmood Abubakar stated that ‘’the ERGP envisage that investment in agriculture can guarantee food security, have the potential to be a major contributor to job creation, and will save foreign exchange required for food imports.
The Minister stated that “our various empowerment initiatives along production, processing and marketing of agricultural commodities we have lifted a total of 4,205,576 Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years. This is going to continue as part of Mr. Presidents promise to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next 10 years.”
