President Bola Tinubu recently launched over 2,000 tractors, 2,000 disc ploughs, disc harrows, 2,000 ridgers and other agricultural implements to boost food production across the country. The rest include 1,200 tractor-trailers, 500 seed drills, 300 boom sprayers and, 10 harvesters, 12 mobile workshop vehicles, and 9,022 sets of spare parts.
The equipment imported from the Republic of Belarus, Eastern Europe, will mechanize our farming and make it attractive to Nigerian youths. It will help us to achieve food sufficiency and food security. The President said that the agricultural tools would herald a shift from subsistence farming to mechanized and large-scale agriculture. The initiative will lead to the cultivation of over 550,000 hectares of farmland, production of over 2million metric tons of staple food and creation of over 16,000 jobs.
The Presidential intervention is coming at a time when the youths are not showing much interest in farming and when farming with hoes and knives cannot produce the needed food for over 200 million Nigerians. Nigeria’s food import bill has risen significantly in recent times. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the nation’s food import reached N6.58 trillion in 2024, a 71.99 per cent rise from N3.83 trillion in 2023.
The rising food import bill can be traced to rising inflation, the depreciation of the naira and challenges in local food production. The World Bank’s 2025 Food Security Updates pointed out that heightened conflict and climate-related disruptions, such as droughts have worsened food insecurity in Nigeria. According to the bank, an additional one million Nigerians experienced acute food shortage in 2024.
Apart from the farm tractors and implements from Republic of Belarus, the federal government is collaborating with Brazil to deepen the nation’s agriculture, especially in mechanized farming and livestock development. The over $1billion Nigeria-Brazil Green Imperative Agricultural Initiative will deliver mechanized farming equipment, training and service centres across the country. It will also create jobs, raise productivity and help secure Nigeria’s ambition to feed its people and others. We urge the government to ensure that the initiative succeeds.
There is no doubt that mechanized agriculture is the future of this country endowed by nature with plenty arable land for food and cash crops and enough body of waters for aquatic agriculture. Apart from crude oil, agriculture contributes so much to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is still the major employer of labour.
Before the discovery of crude oil, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy and largest employer of labour. Nigeria then was the major producer of palm oil, cocoa, and ground nuts. We can still replicate that glorious era of our agriculture where every region grew a crop it had comparative advantage. While the Eastern region was known for palm oil production, the Northern region was synonymous with ground nut pyramids, and the Western region leveraged on cocoa plantation. The Mid-West region engaged in rubber plantation.
While commending President Tinubu for the initiative, we observe that 2,000 tractors and other agricultural implements already imported will not be enough to really revolutionize our agriculture. Although this is a good starting point, there is urgent need to increase the number of the tractors and other farm implements for Nigeria’s agriculture to be fully mechanized. Since agriculture is on the concurrent legislative list, the state governments should seize the initiative and import more tractors and farm implements to ensure that our agriculture is fully mechanized.
We say so because they have the land and other resources to modernize our agriculture. In fact, the state governments should lead the crusade to mechanize our agriculture, ensure food sufficiency and food security and reduce our growing food import. Let us maximize our production of food crops such as cassava, yam, cocoyam and others. At the same time, we must increase our capacity to grow more rice, beans, soyabeans and other grains. We can also grow plenty fruits and vegetables, including cashew, dates, mango and others.
Unfortunately, our livestock development is still rudimentary and should therefore be reformed. The nomadic rearing of cattle is no longer in vogue. Apart from intensifying the so-called farmers/herders conflict in some parts of the country, it leads to production of poor quality cattle and dairy products. Our animal farmers must intentionally embrace ranching, the global standard in animal husbandry practice.
Moving forward, we call on the federal and state governments to substantially increase their annual budget for agriculture if they are serious about mechanized farming and food security. The country cannot grow enough food and animal protein with the present paltry allocation to agriculture. The government must prioritize farming and agriculture. Farmers should be given credit facilities with low interest rates. Government must encourage private sector participation in agriculture and food production.
Above all, the federal government should also tackle headlong the rising insecurity in the North-Central region and other regions affected by insurgency, banditry, terrorism and other forms of criminality. Without tackling them, the envisaged mechanized farming to boost food production and food security will not materialize.