The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, says Nigeria requires 72,000 tractors to achieve food security.
He said the country has fewer than 5,000 tractors that are working.
Mr Kyari stated this on Tuesday when he appeared for the House of Representatives sectoral debate on food security.
He appeared alongside the Minister of State in the ministry, Sabi Abdullahi, Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adeniyi, Managing Director of NISARL, Abubakar Kure, and others.
The 10th House has been holding debates on different sectors of the country. So far, it has held debates on security and the economy.
Mr Kyari highlighted the lack of mechanisation in agricultural practice as a significant impediment to better output as farmers still depend on hoes and cutlasses.
He informed the lawmakers that the federal government is on the verge of procuring tractors from foreign companies.
“Mechanisation is a substantial setback for us in this country. Today, I am not too sure if we have 5,000 tractors fully working in Nigeria. We need over 72,000 with what we have in terms of arable landscape.
“We signed an MoU last year in November with John Deere, a prominent American agricultural equipment company. The MoU aims for John Deere to bring in 2,000 tractors a year for the next five years, making it 10,000.
“As I speak, they are in Lagos today and will be arriving in Abuja this evening, and we are going to hold a meeting for the second time with the partners that are here,” he said.