The Federal Government recently took a giant step towards increased mechanization of agriculture in the country with the flag-off of the innovative Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises (AEHEs), and the commissioning of 100,00 metric tons silos, the largest in West Africa. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, at the formal launch of the initiatives at Sheda, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, said they were part of the government’s plans to remove the drudgery in manual farming, and further consolidate the impressive increase in food production in the country under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises scheme is a private sector-led but public sector-enabled project under which private organisations will bid for units of the enterprises that will hire out agricultural equipment to ordinary farmers at a subsidized rate. The hiring farmers will pay only 50 per cent of the bill for the renting of equipment under the scheme, while the Federal and State Governments will pay the 50 percent balance, at 25 percent each. About 590 units of tractors, 500 power tillers and 500 harvest and post-harvest equipment will be made available to farmers and farmers’ groups under the scheme. The Federal Government has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN) to set N50 billion Agricultural Mechanization Fund aside to drive the national initiative, which has kicked off in Zamfara State, with 100 percent subsidy for this dry season, but with a reversion to the national 50 percent subsidy thereafter. The Minister has expressed the hope that the Public/Private Participation (PPP) scheme, which is part of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government, will alongside other initiatives boost food production in the country by 20 million tons.
When fully on stream, each state will have four Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises, with three in each senatorial district, and the fourth in the state capital. A minimum of 1200 AEHEs are expected to be established in the country between now and 2016, with 6000 tractors and their implements, 15,000 power tillers and over 20,000 planting, harvesting and post-harvest equipment made available for onward hiring/leasing to farmers. The scheme is expected to lead to mechanized farming of four million hectares of farmland, boost food supply and create about 200,000 jobs. The new 100,000 metric tons silos, which has now brought Nigeria’s total silos capacity to 1.3 million metric tons, is expected to help secure food supply in the country.
We commend the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Government for these ambitious projects. Coming after earlier innovative schemes such as the Electronic Wallet (through which farmers in all parts of the country have access to subsidized farming inputs), the Dry Season Scheme, and the weeding out of corruption in the fertiliser distribution system that has won accolades for the ministry, it has become quite clear that the federal government is determined to make an indelible mark in agriculture in Nigeria.
This focus on mechanizing agriculture in the country could not have come at a better time. With the declining price of crude oil in the international market, the finite nature of the product and Nigeria’s over-reliance on oil revenue, there is no debating the fact that agriculture is one the most sustainable ways of boosting the country’s revenue profile. And, there is hardly any better way to improve the sector than to mechanize it. This is because subsistence farming with hoes and cutlasses that is most common in the country today cannot make the desired impact on agricultural production. The sector has to be fully mechanized so that Nigerian farmers can produce enough food for local production, and for export.
Even as we commend the Minister of Agriculture and President Goodluck Jonathan for their commitment to transforming the agricultural sector, it is important that we point out that while the initiative looks good on paper, it has to be transformed into reality to earn the accolades of Nigerians. This is, indeed, a gargantuan project to which the government has earmarked a lot of money. That money must be judiciously utilised to realise the stated objectives. This scheme must not be allowed to end up in controversy, or go the way of many other agricultural schemes in the past that only amounted to a waste of national resources. The minister must realise that his integrity and that of the Federal Government is at stake on this matter. The scheme must be monitored and regulated each step of the way to ensure that it is kept on track, while corruption is guarded against.
It is also good that the government is not only investing in increased mechanization of agriculture, it is planning to get youths involved in the sector through the establishment of School Agribusiness Clubs (SACs) in selected schools from 12 states in the six geo-political zones of the country. The clubs, which will have 120 students each in the pilot scheme, will train students in mechanized agricultural production. It is worthwhile to get youths interested in farming to increase their interest and chances of taking it up as a profession in future.
But, to really make agriculture attractive and profitable in the country, the government will do well to take a holistic view of the challenges facing the sector, including bad access roads, access to credit and the management of perishable products.
Agriculture is one of the few outstanding successes stories of the current government. This planned intervention in mechanization of the sector must be handled in a way that will boost the image of the government, and not dent it.
