As FEC approves N1.2bn for mechanized farming
The Federal Government on Wednesday announced an injection of additional N47 billion for the generation of additional 40 megawatts of electricity to boost the national grid.
The 40 megawatts would be evacuated from Kashimbilla Dam in Taraba State where it is currently being generated.
The Minister of Power, Mr Saleh Mamman, told journalists at the State House shortly after the virtual Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday that the 40 megawatts will boost power supply in Taraba and Benue States as well as the Northeast zone.
“The Council approved the Ministry’s memo for the revised estimated total cost for the augmentation of the subsisting contract in the sum of N47, 235, 303, 821.90 to provide additional critical power grid infrastructure for the full evacuation delivery and utilization of 40 megawatt, currently being generated form Kashimbilla, via Takum, Wukari and Yandev, to the national grid,’’ he said.
According to him, if the generated power is not evacuated from its source, Nigeria will loose about 120 gigawatts of power equivalent to $9 million dollars in a year.
On his part, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Sabo Nanono, said council approved a loan facility of about €950,000 (euros) about $1.2 billion for agricultural mechanization.
He said the loan would cover about 632 local governments and140 processing plants.
“This is going to be a major revolution in the agricultural sector like we have never seen before. I think the executive council has done the right thing and has approved this.
“The key to mechanization is the establishment of 632 tractor serving centers across the country. These serving centres will constitute tractor hiring skill, IT and admin office and a chemical workshop and store for storing inputs for agriculture and even output arising from agricultural sector.
“The key to the tractor hiring skill is that every tractor will have a tracking system so that wherever it is working in this country, you will know at your finger tips where it is working and which area it has covered and how much revenue it’s getting. And these serving centres are going to be privately owned by the indigenes of those local governments.
“So it is imperative for everybody now to key into this programme. It is going to be a competitive bid that will involve selection in terms of your experience in agriculture, your finance position, your investment of between N10 to N70 million.
“Because you may be probably be handed an asset of over N150 million, so we will not take that chance. So it is going to be a wholly privately owned affair. The loan will be generated by these service centres and will also be in charge of repayment of these loans,’’ the minister explained.
Nanono added: “We have made our calculation and we have come to the conclusion that if your tractor works for between N65,000 to N75,000 per day, if you have operational cost of about N30,000 to N35,000 you will have a net profit of about N40,000. Our calculation is that between the period of three to four years, you will pay off the loan completely. And then you will have this assets worth over N150 million.
“You have to understand that this country in terms of agricultural mechanization is at lowest level. We have only about seven tractors per 100 square kilometers, Kenya has 27 tractors 100 square kilometers. In fact the standard is 127 tractor 100 square kilometers in most developed countries is about 1000 tractors 100 square kilometers.
“If we are going to move agriculture forward in this country, which we must have to do it because if oil does not become water, it is absolutely necessary for us to mechanise.
“We have estimated 84 to 92 million hectares of land, we are only cultivating about 34 hectares even that is not done at optimum level, because of lack of mechanization. But we trying to change that narrative to a more productive and sustainable and where it will affect every part of this country.
“We anticipate direct job from this in the region of seven million, indirect will be in the region of 20 million or so. So that is the essence of this.’’
The minister disclosed that 140 agro-processing plants would be attached to the service centres across the 36 states of the federation.
“For example, Kaduna, Kano Jigawa axis that is the processing centre for rice, Nassarawa, Benue is cassava processing and so on and so forth, depending on the commodities available to that axis.”
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