The minister said the ministry has signed an MoU with John Deere, a prominent American agricultural equipment company, to supply 2,000 tractors a year for the next five years, making it 10,000.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, says Nigeria requires 72,000 tractors to achieve food security.
He said the country has fewer than 5,000 tractors that are working.
Mr Kyari stated this on Tuesday when he appeared for the House of Representatives sectoral debate on food security.
He appeared alongside the Minister of State in the ministry, Sabi Abdullahi, Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adeniyi, Managing Director of NISARL, Abubakar Kure, and others.
The 10th House has been holding debates on different sectors of the country. So far, it has held debates on security and the economy.
Mr Kyari highlighted the lack of mechanisation in agricultural practice as a significant impediment to better output as farmers still depend on hoes and cutlasses.
He informed the lawmakers that the federal government is on the verge of procuring tractors from foreign companies.
"Mechanisation is a substantial setback for us in this country. Today, I am not too sure if we have 5,000 tractors fully working in Nigeria. We need over 72,000 with what we have in terms of arable landscape.
"We signed an MoU last year in November with John Deere, a prominent American agricultural equipment company. The MoU aims for John Deere to bring in 2,000 tractors a year for the next five years, making it 10,000.
"As I speak, they are in Lagos today and will be arriving in Abuja this evening, and we are going to hold a meeting for the second time with the partners that are here," he said.
Why fertiliser is expensive
Mr Kyari also lamented the rising cost of fertiliser and its impact on the cost of food in the market.
He explained that fertiliser plants are struggling with the cost of gas to power their plants, adding that some gas suppliers are selling in U.S. dollars to fertiliser manufacturers.
Mr Kyari, a former senator, said the gas suppliers should accept payments in naira when selling to Dangote and Indorama Fertilisers to bring down the price of fertilisers in Nigeria.
"We have engaged two main fertiliser producers, Dangote Fertiliser and Indorama Fertiliser. For the production of urea, gas is the number one and the only feedstock for it. To our shock, gas is priced at the international market rate and in dollars. We have engaged NNPC Limited on the unavailability of gas.
"We discussed the issue with NNPC, and they have agreed to look into the price. This is a local resource, a good-given resource. Why should it be priced at an international price?
"The other issue is that there is an agreement with those UREA manufacturers to supply 35 per cent to the domestic market and 65 per cent to be exported. That 35 per cent is enough to feed our local needs, but they would never do that simply because they don't have gas. Some of them have the capacity of 8,000 metric tonnes a day but they could handle more," he said.
The minister added that the high cost of gas is making it difficult for fertiliser manufacturers to meet local obligations.
"Some of them (fertiliser manufacturers) have loan repayment and other obligations like forward agreements. We need NNPC Limited to supply gas to them," he said.
Following the presentation, Mr Kyari also engaged in a question and answer session, with lawmakers raising concerns on Nigeria's food security.
"We've seized 120 trucks of grain from smugglers"-- Customs CG
On his part, Mr Adeniyi informed the House that the ongoing crackdown on smugglers is going to continue in the face of the food crisis the country is battling with.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
He said the NCS has seized 120 trucks from smugglers, adding that the Service will continue to inject the seized grains into the local markets.
"We are currently in an operation all over Nigeria which has resulted in the seizure of over 120 trucks across different other stations and other areas in the country.
"Because we're in a state of emergency, we have received the directive to implement some kind of restrictions on the export of critical food items, and this is what we have been implementing in the last one month to ensure that we have local self-sufficiency," Mr Adeniyi said.
PREMIUM TIMES reported the poor distribution of seized grains by Customs, resulting in the deaths of Nigerians.
NCS subsequently suspended the distribution following the stampede that happened in Lagos.
