Minister Expresses Worry Over Slow Implementation of Tractor Agreement, Delivery

•Meets equipment manufacturer to clear obstacles

James Emejo in Abuja

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, yesterday expressed concerns over the seeming tardiness on the part of John Deere to supply tractors to the federal government, five months after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by both parties on the subject matter.

Agricultural mechanization remained a key part of the agricultural reforms under President Bola Tinubu, who has committed to ensuring that the age-long challenges of mechanization due to the lack of machinery is resolved.

In November, the federal government through the ministry signed an MoU with John Deere for the supply of 2,000 units of tractors over five years. Now in March, not a single tractor had been imported, prompting worries from the minister.

However, speaking during a technical meeting with the leadership of the company, including its Managing Director, John Deere Africa, Mr. Stephan Gouws, and Nigeria Country Director, Mr. Chijioke Okoli, among others, Kyari said, “We are concerned that there seems to be a slow pace of the concepts that we have outlined”.

The minister said, “We have received your team from John Deree in the past – in November last year when we signed an MoU for the supply and sale of John Deree Tractors in Nigeria; it was agreed that you supply 2,000 tractors per year for the next five years with room to increase that amount.

“I want to reiterate the commitment of President Bola Tinubu towards ensuring that this arrangement works this time around.

“And as I am talking to you now, the president is waiting for the outcome of this meeting to see how far we have gone.”

Kyari emphasised on the need to develop delivery timelines to monitor progress and achieve the desired objectives.

He said, “We are in the third month of 2024 and we have assured Nigerians that we have 2,000 tractors in 2024. If we are in the third month, we should have 500 tractors on the ground by now.

“But here we are, it’s like we are a bit stuck in the mud and we want to run away from all the problems that we envisaged in the past and if there are any knotty areas that we need to look at, we need to do that assiduously.”

The minister added, “We want to know when the first set of tractors will arrive in Nigeria because, at our last meeting in November, we were told the CKDs (Completely Knocked Down), the ones that will be assembled in Lekki would come later in the year but that there would be some imports of the Semi Knock Down (SKD).”

Kyari, who later went into a closed-door meeting with the company assured that all grey areas would be analysed to clear all obstacles in the way of the agreement.

He also expressed optimism that the contract for the delivery of tractors for mechanization would not fail this time around.

Attempts by past administrations to broker similar deals for tractor supply had crumbled.

John Deere was in the country in 2019 on a similar mission which didn’t materialize.