Nigeria Signs Pact with Firms to Establish Tractor Assembly Plants

The Federal Government has recently signed an agreement with a few Brazilian firms to establish tractor assembly plants in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, in Abuja.

Adamu noted that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, with the support of President Muhammadu Buhari, had secured funding from the Islamic Bank to accelerate the project.

According to him, the initiative is aimed at allocating at least 10 tractors to each of the 774 Local Government Areas of the country.

He further revealed that service centres would be established in all the council areas combined with the training of young individuals on how to handle tractors and carry out basic maintenance on the equipment.

In his words, “Because of the commitment of President Buhari’s administration to boost food production through agriculture, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has come up with a programme to make tractors available to all farmers in Nigeria.

“By this programme, some Brazilian firms are being contacted to come to Nigeria with support from Islamic Bank so that the companies would bring into Nigeria, completely knocked down parts of tractors which would be assembled in Nigeria.

“Assembly plants for the tractors would be cited in Nigeria. There will be service centres in each of the 774 local government areas in the country.

“Each centre will oversee the number of tractors that are allocated to each local government and there would be at least 10 in each local government area,” Adamu stated.

He also stressed the need for farmers to add value to their crops by investing in techniques that would enable them to preserve their produce.