The National Chairman of Tractor Owners and Hiring Facilities Association of Nigeria, Danladi Garba, on Wednesday, lamented that only 10 per cent of Nigerian farmers engage in mechanised farming.
Garba said the problem of inadequate farming equipment had prevented Nigeria from attaining sufficiency in food production.
He spoke at the maiden edition of Nigerian Agricultural Mechanisation Exhibition 2022 in Abeokuta, Ogun State, organised by Hephzibah Nigeria Limited.
According to him, Nigeria needs at least one million tractors to achieve the mechanisation of the agricultural sector.
The TOHFAN chairman said, “Today, in Nigeria, we have only 7,000 functional tractors providing services to Nigerian farmers while the demand level is over one million tractors that should be in place for Nigerian farmers.
“For TOHFAN, between now and five years, we are planning to have 5,000 to 10,000 tractors in our country. This is just a drop into the ocean, whereby we need one million tractors; the demand is high while the supply is low. For example, last year, we received over 100,000 requests from farmers for tractors, but we were only able to serve 70,000.”
– Punch