There is no doubt that many Nigerians have applauded the Federal Government (FG)’sannouncement on her new agricultural revolution with the approval of $1.2billion loan for the execution of the agricultural mechanization centres whichare to be located in about 632 local government centres and 140 processingcentres for the use of farmers and agro processors.
While we agree that the decision of Federal ExecutiveCouncil (FEC) to approve a memo seeking approval for a loan facility of $1.2billion to pursue this mechanization project towards reducing drudgery infarming and processing of agricultural produce is apt at this time, we cannotbut mention that some grey areas need to be well sorted out, and that is whatnecessitated this editorial, it is to call the attention of the governmentespecially the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) andthe Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on some things that should be done before anydisbursem*nt is made.
The breakdown of the execution of the projects for which theloan facility is meant is still unclear in the sense that the specification ofthe type of tractors and other equipment to be imported are not yet spelt outto justify the purpose of the loan, and more importantly the level ofinvolvement of the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) andNigerian Institute of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE) who set standards andprovide professional guidance to get the best out of the deal are very minimal.
Although there are indications that a representative of NCAMis a member of one of the committees, the question is why would NCAM who has legal mandates on any agriculturalequipment and ‘tractorization’ certification before importation be just a meremember on a committee set up on an issue like this ?, while NIAE was not eveninvolve in any way.
In the light of the above facts, the questions begging foranswer are since the professionals were not consulted before the governmentasked for and got the loan, then how did it arrive at the approved amount?
We may want to echo here that this loan facility may not worththe while if the purpose is to embark on tractors, implements and other equipmentimportation to only assemble in this country as that strategy in the face ofthe current Covid-19 pandemic and high unemployment is equivalent to creatingjobs in other countries with our own money.
More so, this shows that all the noise on food importationbanning is mere noises without substance. We are not saying that as a countrywe cannot import equipments, what is very important is that those tractors andother equipment we intend to import must have specifications, and they must bethe ones NCAM and other research institutes do not have capacity to produce beforesuch importation can be embarked upon just as adaptability to our ecologiesmust be considered for proper sustainability and judicious spending of the loanfacility.
Why we are calling the attention of the government to allthese is that our lesson from Covid- 19 will amount to nothing if our level ofsensitiveness to backward integration is not scaled up to internalising ourmechanization strategy to commercialization of the locally produced prototypesmachines in our many research institutes and NCAM towards checkmating drudgery infood productivity.
We cannot keep importing power tillers and harvesters thatare available in the country and at the same time expect to develop our ownagricultural model that will be competitive enough for global market. As muchas we appreciate this gesture from the government towards mechanization, wealso emphasise that the time has come for us as a nation to give deep thoughtto all these importations, otherwise we will perpetually remain dependant onother countries for items we can produce locally at the expense of thecountry’s economy that will be suffering due to unending devaluation of ournaira.
It will not be out of place for NCAM and even NIAE to beabsolutely involved so as to ensure effective utilization of the facility tothe sector’s development in a sustainable mechanization of tractor hiringcentres being made closer to farmers and processing machines for processors. Itmust be noted that NCAM as a government agency purposely set up for such issue asthis must be allowed to work so as to justify tax payers’ expenses.
Finally, the concept tractor hiring centres in Nigeria isnot a new model as several administrations have done it in the past withoutmuch impact basically because most of the imported machines are not veryadaptable to our ecologies just as full consultation with technicalstakeholders are negated for reasons best known to those administrations. Thisis why it is important that all precautions are taken this time around in orderto make a difference from what it used to be.
