The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, recently took his campaign on mechanised farming and agri-business to Ilorin, Kwara State, where he addressed stakeholders on the need to embrace the technology and unveiled new, locally-made farming equipment. Yemi Akinsuyi writes

“I am not a Minister of poverty and the poor. An American farmer plays golf after a hard day’s job, using mechanised farming equipment to achieve great success and prosperity, while our Nigerian farmers retire to their poor homes with little or nothing to show for a hard day’s labour, using their hoes and cutlasses.

“That is why we are taking local farming, where hoes and cutlasses are used, to mechanised farming. This action will not only provide adequate and affordable food on the table of Nigerians, our teeming unemployed youths would be encouraged to go into farming, thereby providing prosperity to the people.”

These were the words of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who has pledged to make agriculture a pivot of the economy.

Armed with this resolve, Adesina took the campaign to the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, Kwara State, where he did not mince words in telling the large crowd of stakeholders the importance of agri-business as a panacea for prosperity.

At the 16th Annual Lecture of ARMTI, Adesina said youths have not been involved in farming due to the traditional methods applied, which, he explained, has not brought about the needed satisfaction in the area of prosperity desired by the young-at-heart.

Elderly Know-how

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, while reiterated the importance of agric-business for economic growth, told the Ilorin gathering that in less than four decades from now, the world population is expected to grow to over 9 billion; hence the increase in the demand for food and other agricultural products.

“The World Economic Forum recognises that in order to achieve this, the world will need a New Vision for Agriculture - delivering food security, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity through agriculture”, Obasanjo said.

The former president noted that the new agriculture vision is hinged on developing a shared agenda for action and fostering multi-stakeholders’ collaboration to achieve sustainable agricultural growth through market-based solutions.

He however expressed regret that African governments and agro-businesses have failed to take full advantage of the opportunities agriculture presents the continent.

“For decades since 1960 when most African states gained independence from colonial rule, the continent has witnessed stagnation or declining per capital incomes and agricultural output, although it holds about 60 per cent of global uncultivated land,” he added.

Vital Equipment

Apart from these problems, availability and affordability of mechanised farming equipment have been some of the problems militating against the manifestation of mechanised farming and attainment of food security. To this end, Adesina launched farming equipment, locally made by the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM) campus, Ilorin.

These equipment are cassava peeling machine, cassava screw press, direct discharge multi-purpose milling machine, maize sheller, modified multi-crop thresher, melon sheller, oil palm processing line, melon washer mechanical horizontal cabinet dryer, combined cassava grating/chipping machine, hammer mill with cyclonel, and motorised groundnut decarticator.

The elated minister said he was pleased that under the leadership of the Executive Director, Mr. Ike Azogu, the centre had recovered well from the damage created by the floods of 2012.

“My visit to this great Centre of Excellence in agricultural mechanisation is to strengthen the emphasis the administration of the President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, places on agricultural mechanisation. Agriculture is an important sector of the country’s economy and has high potentials for employment generation, food security, wealth creation and industrialisation.

“That is why Mr. President launched the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). Our goal is to add 20 million MT of food to the domestic food supply and create 3.5 million jobs by 2015.

“Nigeria has about 84 million hectares of arable land of which only 40 per cent is cultivated. Indeed, no more than 10 per cent of the arable land is cultivated optimally, as the level of productivity is low. While government, through the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, is accelerating access of farmers to improved seeds and fertilisers, a major challenge facing farmers is lack of adequate mechanisation services”, the minister lamented.

According to him, “FAO estimates that in sub-Saharan Africa, only 1 per cent of farm power is provided by mechanical means, with less than 10 per cent from draught animals and 89 per cent from human labour. Nigeria is not an exemption.

“The current level of mechanisation in Nigeria is estimated to be 0.03hp/ha, as against the 1.5hp/ha recommended by FAO. The total number of tractors in the country is 30,000 of which over 50 per cent have broken down.

“The low level of mechanisation limits ability of farmers to expand cultivated areas, perform timely farm operations and achieve economies of scale in raising food production. Because farming is still done with rudimentary equipments, land and labour productivity is low, and this limits the interest of the youth in agriculture. We are changing this.

“NCAM is one of the Agencies under my Ministry. NCAM was established by Decree No. 35 of 1990 (now an Act of the National Assembly) with the overall objective of accelerating the pace of mechanisation in the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy in order to increase the quantity and quality of agricultural products in Nigeria.

“The main function of NCAM is to make sure that there is a reduction in drudgery, through the provision of simple, efficient and cost effective machines and processes that will ensure food security and meet the industrial raw materials and export needs of the nation. This necessitates the urgent consideration for mechanisation and the use of appropriate technologies for crop production and post-harvest activities.

“NCAM, in line with the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), has developed appropriate and adapted agricultural machines that are on display today. These machines will be distributed to 18 states of the Federation and will provide the platform for awareness promotion and field testing that will subsequently provide the initial building blocks that will drive their commercialisation.

“We must aggressively privatise the commercialisation of agricultural machinery in Nigeria. Private sector must play this lead role. Government has sunk several billions of naira in the past years into purchase of tractors and other mechanised equipment, but corruption and lack of maintenance culture have made these efforts unsuccessful. Government direct procurement and distribution of tractors was riddled with corruption, as old refurbished tractors were sold to government as new tractors. That is why this government ended government procurement and distribution of tractors.

“We have attracted the private investor to invest in the sector, to assure the supply of quality tractors, equipments, and mechanised services for farmers across the country. AGCO, the world's leading manufacturer of tractors, is already investing in Nigeria, with expected total investment of $100 million.

“A private sector-driven equipment hiring scheme tailored is being introduced, to improve the access of farmers to affordable mechanised services. This mechanisation service delivery will be all inclusive: covering land development (trees removal, stump removal, and de-stoning) land preparation, tillage operation, harvesting, transportation, construction of rural roads, tractor rehabilitation, threshing, processing, value addition, etc.

“To ensure that farmers have access to farm mechanisation services in the 2013 season, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will establish 60 Private Sector-driven Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises (AEHE) in priority sites across the country. The AEHE will be equipped with 300 units of tractors and 1,590 planting, harvest and post harvest agricultural equipment to provide immediate mechanisation service support to farmers in these areas.

“The financing of the agricultural equipment hiring centers will be done through public-private partnerships. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will provide N3.5 billion towards facilitating financing of these centers, in partnership with the Bank of Agriculture and the private sector. The government will provide 35 per cent of the loans; Bank of Agriculture will provide 35 per cent, while private sector operators will provide 30 per cent as equity contributions”, Adesina added.

Enhancing Growth

The minister also explained that “The Growth Enhancement Support (GES) will be expanded beyond seeds and fertilisers, to provide mechanisation subsidy to assist Nigerian farmers to access mechanisation services from the Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises. Farmers will receive their mechanisation support as electronic vouchers on their mobile phones which they will use to pay for mechanised services at the registered agric equipment hiring centres.

“Under the GES, our target is to reach 5 million farmers this year. Already, to ensure that farmers are registered, we have commenced nationwide registration of farmers, at every ward across the country.

“We expect that the private sector will deploy 10,000 units of tractors, matching implements, harvest and post harvest equipments between 2013-2015. The mechanisation approach of the ministry is structured to ensure that 25 per cent local content of these tractors will be fabricated locally, while 75 per cent will be imported but shall be locally assembled on Semi Knocked Down (SKD) and Completely Knocked Down (CKD) bases.

“I am impressed with the development of Triktor, the first Nigeria made tractor. Let me highly commend Mr. Femi Odeleye of Bespoke Design for this remarkable achievement. I hope that soon, these Triktors will join the tractor hiring centres.

“These tractor hiring centres are expected to create about 2,000 jobs for the youth. They will expand cultivated land area by 150,000 ha and add about 600,000 Metric tonnes of food. All these will be done in partnership with NCAM and build on some of the excellent work on agricultural mechanisation we are launching today.

“I commend the efforts and achievements of the Executive Director of the NCAM, Mr. Ike Azogu, his management and staff members for the wonderful feat they have achieved in the last three years. NCAM, as the only centre for agricultural mechanisation in Nigeria, will continue to play a significant role in government's efforts to expand agricultural mechanisation in Nigeria.

“I wish to assure you of Mr. President's strong support, in his drive to transform agriculture as a business in Nigeria. I also wish to inform you that Mr. President is fully aware of the challenges facing all our research institutes. Let me assure you that the issue of salary and demands of the agricultural research institutes are being addressed. They will be resolved very soon”, Adesina promised.

The man of the moment, Azogu, thanked the minister for his encouragement and also members of his staff, whom he said were the pillars behind the gigantic achievement of the Centre. He pledged NCAM’s readiness to do more in ensuring that agriculture takes the centre stage in the nation’s economy.