Substandard machinery slows FG’s agric revolution plan

The Federal Government aim of diversifying the economy away from oil through agriculture is being threaten as substandard farm machine and tools continues to flood the country.

The influx of these machines and farm tools is reducing farmer’s productive capabilities to expand their cultivation areas perform timely farming operations and achieve economies of scale in raising food production.

Despite the policy that requires that all agricultural equipment and machinery imported into the country be certified and suitable for operations in Nigeria by the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) in Ilorin, influx of substandard tractors continues to find its way into the Nigerian tractor market.

Damisa Enahoro, commercial manager, tractor & implements, Dizengoff, West Africa, said “farmers have no choice than to purchase sub-standard farm machinery because of their inability to purchase original farm machines which has also encouraged low level of agricultural mechanisation.”

Low level of agricultural mechanisation has continued to limit the capacity of farmers to expand their cultivation areas, perform timely farming operations and achieve economies of scale in raising food production, analysts say. According to them, for the country to achieve food sufficiency, mechanised agriculture is the only option.

Enahoro said it is important for the government to address the issue of substandard farm machines by providing single digit loans to farmers and ensure that the appropriate agencies regulate these importations of farm equipment.

He also said that the implication of the influx of substandard equipment will result to the loss of revenue due to low productivity, excessive down time and lack of technical support

“Many state governments and individual farms and organisations are importing inferior tractors and other equipment into Nigeria,” said Elesa Yakubu, national president, Tractors Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria (TOOAN).

Yakubu stated that the country is wasting foreign exchange in the importation of these tractors because the money cannot be justified, since farmers cannot use it for a long period of time.

Nigeria is one of the least mechanised farming countries in the world with the country’s tractor density put at 0.025 hp/ hectare which is far below FAO recommended tractor density of 1.5 hp/ hectare for Africa and other developing countries, according to data from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

“The substandard farm equipment is mostly the ones imported by state governments. This put farmers in debt because most of them took loans from financial institutions to finance the purchase of these equipments,” said Afioluwa Mogaji, chief executive officer, X-RAY Farms.

In Nigeria, a significantly higher proportion of farming area is still cultivated by hand tools. More than 70 percent of farm labour is provided by human power; over 20 percent is provided with draft animal power and less than 10 percent by mechanical power.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) reckons that Nigeria is still at the early stage of agricultural mechanisation; even at that, its mechanisation of power intensive operations have been slow.

Josephine Okojie