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Food production: FG inaugurates equipment hiring scheme

By on January 15, 2016

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has signalled the commencement of the second phase of the Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprise under the Mechanisation Intervention Programme.

The event, which held at the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation in Ilorin, Kwara State, witnessed the unveiling of high-powered 110hp to 200hp precision farming tractors, 295 tractors of various capacities and other harvest and post-harvest equipment required to set up 60 additional AEHE centres.

The minister said the new AEHE centres would provide 2,000 direct jobs for unemployed youths, help to mechanise 100,000 hectares of land and add 500,000 metric tonnes of food to national production.

Ogbeh commended the revolutionary strides of his predecessor, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who is now the President of the African Development Bank, in repositioning Nigeria’s agriculture to the level it attained currently.

He said Akinwumi laid a good foundation for reforms in the sector, but observed that much had yet to be achieved because the sector had suffered neglect for over 30 years since the discovery of crude oil.

According to the Senior Special Adviser to the Minister on Media, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, Ogbeh considered it counterproductive to think of developing agriculture by distribute hoes, machetes, axes and low-yielding seeds to farmers.

“Capitalism puts wealth in the hands of the drivers but the time to democratise capitalism, especially in the Nigerian agricultural sector, is now. This government is committed to achieving an all-inclusive growth,” Ogbeh said.

The minister lamented that the low level of mechanisation was limiting the ability of farmers to expand cultivated areas, perform timely farm operations and achieve economies of scale in increasing food production.

[Punch]