http://allafrica.com/stories/201504100736.html?aa_source=nwsltr-agriculture-en
The plan for mechanisation, which was conceived by the ministry, envisaged a number of expectations. First, we planned to create 800,000 additional jobs in the sector. Two, we want to bring 3.5 million hectares of additional land under cultivation.

So, we want to expand or increase production along this line. Three: 14,000 metric tons of additional food will be added to the national food reserve. Also, 10,000 million additional Nigerian farmers will now have access to mechanisation services.

At the beginning of the ATA, one of the goals we set for ourselves was to modernise Nigerian agriculture. We also wanted to, through that process, make it attractive to a new generation because, we are changing the demography of the Nigerian farmers. Our ageing farmers population, coupled with the need to employ the youths who are, today, unemployed, created the need to make agriculture very attractive and also creating more efficiency: hence Mr. President's programme to introduce agricultural mechanisation into the country.

A number of progress has been recorded so far. We briefed earlier that Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises (AEHE) centres have been established across the country. We are pleased to inform you that all the AEHE winners in the first batch have fulfilled their obligations and their equipment have been delivered.

The list of the beneficiaries is available for public scrutiny. But beyond that, additional 28 enterprises were also created through our various interactions with the states and other stakeholders such as the Cassava Growers Association.

On how it works

As at now, 118 of these AEHEs are on ground and will be running, just in time for the cropping season that is coming up right now. It will also interest you to know that this scheme is conceived purely as a public-private partnership.

Government is promoting it , but it is entirely private sector-driven. We know of the efficiency that the private sector has to bring to the table. Government is providing guarantee and some form of funding through the Bank of Agriculture that will be recovered. For emphasis, this is a private sector-driven programme.

Under the overall scheme, we intend to establish a total of 1,230 units. These units will have those tractors, threshers and planters. So, it is a full complement of mechanisation structure. We are not just putting tractors out there.

And we are dealing with direct producers of these equipment because we also want them to be sustainable. It comes with a package of spare parts and maintenance programmes. We have even gone into a scientific scheme we have designed to the point that it will attract each of these tractors and, at each point in time, we can tell which tractor is where, which one is operating, which is working, how many hectares has it cultivated.

This is an integrated scheme that ensures the returns on investment both for the investors and also enable the banks and other stakeholders to know the performance and to gauge the actual effective demand before we expand into the subsequent schemes.

The initial funding we got for this was through the courtesy of Mr. President. But we are also expanding this to involve commercial banks, and other development banks. We are also inviting state governments to participate in the scheme. We have advertised for expressions of interest in this regard.

On our target of 1,230, we intend to do this within three years or a maximum of four years time frame to ensure that the entire country is covered and also that no farmer will need to go more than 10 kilometres from his farm in trying to access mechanisation services across the country. Given the level of support we are getting for the scheme, Mr. President, at the launching of the scheme, recently, did promise additional funding for this programme.

Once these funds are available, we are going to fast-track the implementation: and in no distant future, Nigerian agriculture will be modernised.

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