- NIRSAL, FADAMA Moves to Tackle N660bn Tractor Redundancy Losses
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, along with its technical partner on agricultural mechanisation, Machines and Equipment Corporation Africa, has signed an agreement with the World Bank’s Third National FADAMA Development Programme for the management of its agricultural infrastructure.
Under the pact, FADAMA would entrust its agricultural infrastructure, which includes mechanisation equipment, irrigation systems, and storage facilities, in the hands of NIRSAL and MECA.
This would be executed through NIRSAL’s comprehensive agricultural mechanisation programme.
The mechanisation programme is designed to address the low agricultural mechanisation rate as a critical intervention for the achievement of food security, job creation and economic diversification of Nigeria.
Statistics from MECA showed that the country is currently losing about N660bn to 130,457 tractors that have been left redundant in the last 25 years.
Out of this figure, about 55,926 are broken down but under serviceable condition.
Nigeria currently needs about 240,000 tractors annually to service the need of its 201 million population.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NIRSAL, Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, noted that the partnership was part of the initiatives targeted at achieving sustainability and continuity of FADAMA projects as the World Bank project approached its official closing date of December 2019.
He assured farmers that NIRSAL would continue to support them even beyond the provision of mechanisation services.
He explained that the programme was an all-encompassing, commercially driven scheme designed to significantly contribute to the agricultural mechanisation value chain through increased access to a tractor and land clearing services at affordable rates for smallholder farmers.
This, he noted, was in line with the current administration’s drive to enhance National food security.
He said, “At NIRSAL, we recognise that when it comes to agriculture, there is an opportunity to positively impact millions of livelihoods.