The Federal Government has revealed it will receive 500 tractors assembled by the John Deere Group to improve mechanised farming.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, who made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja said the gesture would also increase food production and help the country achieve food and nutrition security.
Kyari stated that John Deere would deliver the 500 tractors by the end of May while more would be delivered in September.
He assured that the group would achieve the set target of 2,000 tractors yearly for the next five years as signed in Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry.
The minister explained that to increase agricultural yields, there was a need for tractors, saying that this was very important for growth in the agricultural sector.
He reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to improve food and nutrition security through mechanisation.
Kyari said that the tractors would be accessible, available, and affordable for small, large-scale, and cooperative farmers across the country.
He also revealed that federal government had procured 58,500 tons of milled rice from Rice Millers Association of Nigeria for stabilization of the market force.
” What we did not want to do, was to get to market and purchase food stuff.
” We have appealed to World Food Programme (WFP), which is a United Nation’s based Agency, not to make bulk purchase from the market so as not to exacerbate the food price inflation that we have now,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the initiative aimed at catalyzing farming activities, fortify the nation food and nutrition security in line with President Bola Tinubu’s emergency declaration on food security.
On the recently released fertilizer by the CBN to the ministry, the Minister stated that the release of 2.15 million bags of assorted fertilizer ranging from NPK, UREA and SSP, worth over N100 Billion Naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Nigeria farmers was to enhance agricultural production.
Kyari said that the apex bank’s contribution would increase food production capabilities as well as encourage price stabilization in the agricultural sector.
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He sad that the ministry had received the handing over letter and would commence the distribution of the various assorted fertilizers as soon as locations where they are warehoused is made available to the ministry
Kyari assured that the donation would be judiciously utilized and delivered to the intended farmers.
” As soon as we get the locations which I am sure is spread across the country, we will swing into action,” the minister said. (NAN)
