69 Days After Launch: Farmers Await FG’s Tractors

Tractors

Sixty nine days after the federal government launched 2,000 tractors and other implements for mechanised farming, they are yet to be distributed to farmers, Daily Trust reports.

This has sparked outrage among farmers’ groups who expressed concerns that this year’s wet season is slipping away.This is just as the governors of the six North-East states have called for subsidies on farm inputs in order to avert a potential food crisis across the country.They added that the North East still was confronted by daunting humanitarian and infrastructural challenges.

They stated this in a communiqué issued at the end of the 12th meeting of the North-East Governors’ Forum (NEGF) held on Saturday in Jalingo, Taraba State.

The governors expressed concerns that the rising cost of agricultural inputs was affecting farmers in the zone.

To avert impending food crises ahead, the Forum called for more subsidies to farmers and robust preparation for dry season farming.

The FG’s tractors

Daily Trust recalled that in 2024, the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration ordered the direct purchase of 2,000 tractors.

The tractors and other implements were procured to increase farm mechanisation drive in was what touted as part of the moves by the Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda to reduce food inflation, increase food production and reduce foreign currency expenditure.

Tinubu had, in 2023, declared a state of emergency on food security and identified agricultural mechanisation as a key component of boosting food production nationwide.

The president, while launching the 2,000 tractors on June 24, 2025, had said they would be distributed nationwide through a service-provider model to support small-holder farmers with access to modern equipment, reduce manual labour and increase yields.