The federal government has commenced the distribution of 2,000 tractors under the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme, with a target to cultivate over 1.5 million hectares annually.
The initiative, flagged off at Sheda, Abuja, yesterday, is described as the largest single agricultural mechanisation programme undertaken on the African continent.
The minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said the programme was designed to end Nigeria's long era of low tractor density and usher in a new phase of food productivity.
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Under the new mechanisation programme, the government planned to deploy 2,000 heavy-capacity tractors and over 9,000 precision implements in phases.
The minister explained that the rollout will be phased, beginning with 600 tractors, followed by 750 and 650 units, culminating in 2,000 mechanisation assets nationwide.
Kyari said more than 100,000 applications were received for the first phase alone, reflecting what he called growing confidence in the programme. He clarified that the tractors would not be allocated for private ownership but entrusted to mechanisation service providers operating under a lease-to-own framework.
Each tractor, he noted, has the capacity to service about 600 hectares annually, and the scheme is expected to benefit approximately 1.2 million farmers, with many of the service providers being youth- and women-led enterprises.
The programme is also backed by structured financing arrangements involving the Bank of Agriculture and development partners, while the ministry will oversee standards, performance monitoring and asset management.
According to the minister, each tractor comes with two years of free service support, alongside the deployment of 36 mobile service trucks and the construction of seven mega mechanisation centres nationwide.
Kyari said, "This is not merely an equipment rollout; it is the ignition of a national agricultural productivity revolution. Through the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme, we are deploying 2,000 heavy capacity tractors and over 9,000 precision implements under a rigorously engineered national framework."
These tractors are not distributed for private ownership. They are entrusted to mechanisation service providers, where each tractor with the capacity to service approximately 600 hectares per year becomes not just a machine but a multiplier of productivity."
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Minister of state for agriculture and food security, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the intervention is designed to close Nigeria's mechanisation gap and align the country more closely with continental and global averages.
He said Nigeria's current mechanisation density of 0.27 tractors per 1,000 hectares fell far below the African average of 2.5 and the global average of 3.
Abdullahi said, "We are not merely deploying tractors, we are mechanising productivity, industrialising agriculture, and securing Nigeria's future. Instead of giving it to people who either have 1 hectare or even none at all, we are targeting 1.5 million hectares.
There will be no marginalisation. As we strive to deepen mechanisation, what we are doing here is sustainable and designed to ensure that we produce what we eat and eat what we produce."
