In a bid to boost food production, President Bola Tinubu has directed the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) to spearhead the deployment of 10,000 John Deere tractors across the 36 states.
Persecondnews reports that the deployment will commence with an initial rollout of 2,000 units scheduled for the first and second quarters of 2025, scaling up to 10,000 over the next five years.
According to Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, Executive Secretary of NADF, the 2,000 tractors will arrive at the Lagos port before the wet season farming commences.
Ibrahim said the agency had received presidential order to implement one of the four mechanization programmes of the Federal Government, led by President Tinubu.
The NADF boss revealed that the Fund has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with John Deere and another MoU with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to fast-track the process.
The MoU with NADF is valued at $70 million for the 2,000 tractors expected before the wet season farming.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, commended NADF for the milestone achieved by signing the MoU with AGCOMS International Trading Limited, a company that is the sub-dealer of John Deere Tractors.
Kyari emphasized that the Federal Executive Council is backing up the MoU, adding that with the launch into mechanization, young Nigerians would be attracted to agribusiness.
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