Minister of State for Agriculture Announces Plans to Import Over 2,000 Tractors to Boost Year-Round Farming

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Aliyu Sabi, highlighted the necessity of moving beyond rain-fed agricultural practices to achieve sustainable food production. Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program on Monday, the minister emphasized the importance of diversifying farming techniques to ensure food security.

“We realized that in the past years, we have not been taking our dry season farming seriously, and we cannot just depend on rain-fed agriculture and be food secure,” Minister Sabi stated.

To address these concerns, the government is implementing several mechanization programs aimed at enhancing food production throughout the year. “We are currently having in the works a lot of the mechanization programs, such as the Greener Hope Mechanization Programme and the Greener Imperative Mechanization Programme,” the minister explained. As part of these efforts, the government plans to import more than 2,000 tractors initially, with a subsequent target of 10,000 tractors.

“These initiatives are designed over a period of time to raise the productivity of our farmers by removing the barriers associated with farming,” Mr. Aliyu noted.

Additionally, Mr. Sabi mentioned that the government is planning post-harvest interventions to address issues at the end of the planting season. “Agriculture has a time frame. Now, a lot of production is going on, we are in the rainy season, and if you look at the fields, there is a lot of cropping going on. Those crops are not food; they can only translate into food after three months, depending on the time of harvest. It is not all the food we reserve; it is only the cereals that are easy to reserve. And that is why, as a government, the issue of post-harvest is the major issue, and we are looking at programs that can help us intervene in the post-harvest sector.”