Jonathan directs CBN to set aside N50bn for agric mechanisation fund

A new fund worth N50 billion and  specifically to aid the mechanisation of agricultural practices in Nigeria is expected to be set up in a matter of months if not weeks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This will allow for the speeding  up  of the full establishment of the 1,200 private sector driven Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises (AEHE) across the states of the Federation.

The directive was given by President Goodluck Jonathan at the commissioning and flagging off the 100,000 metric tons grains Silos at Sheda, Federal Capital Territory (F. C. T.) and the Agricultural Equipment Hiring Centers in Nigeria. Jonathan was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

Government hopes the new initiative will further his quest for a revolution in the country’s

agriculture, aimed at self-sufficiency in food production with an eye for export.

“I am directing the CBN today to set aside N50 billion to establish an agricultural mechanisation fund that will make credit available to farmers to mechanise their agricultural processes,” the president said.

The Fund will be the first in the history of Nigeria but it would particularly signpost government’s seriousness and commitment, particularly to Agriculture Minister Akinwunmi Adesina’s strong belief that hoes and cutlasses have no place in modern agriculture, and help a concerted push to see this eliminated in the country’s farming practices.

Government, he also said, will begin to provide mechanisation support grant to farmers to enable them purchase or hire equipment to use in their farming, noting that “for far too long our farmers have depended on rudimentary methods of hoes and cutlasses, which have hindered the areas of acreage they could farm.”

He noted that the country has  huge agriculture potentials, “but we are working to ensure that these potentials make agriculture to create wealth for Nigerians”.

The government’s new method appears to depart from past practices where governments bought tractors and loaned or gave them to farmers. This current initiative is private sector driven, minister Adesina said, describing as “a milestone in our journey to modernise agriculture.”

Akinwunmi said the old system of hoes and cutlasses and the non use of mechanisation led to low productivity by the sector, with high cost of land clearance for farmers.

“Hoes and cutlasses do not reflect a modern agricultural system; they reflect suffering. As we change this, we must also change the model of achieving rapid mechanisation in Nigeria. We must aggressively privatise the commercialisation of agricultural machineries in Nigeria,” Adesina said.

Businessday