The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, was on Tuesday told to explain the whereabouts of the 2,000 tractors launched by the Federal Government under the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanisation Programme.
Members of the joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Agricultural Production threw the question at the Minister at a session where he appeared before them to defend the ministry’s 2026 budget.
Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had on June 23, 2025 commissioned 2,000 tractors, alongside other accompanying implements, for nationwide deployment under the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanisation Programme.
Since the commissioning, the food security which it was purposed to birth remains elusive while the state of the tractors and equipment in terms of whether it had been distributed to the end-users was not in public domain.
Throwing light on the matter at the request of a member of the House of Representatives from Rivers State, Awaji Inombek, Abdullahi said the tractors were yet to be distributed.
He said the delay was deliberate and aimed at preventing the failures that undermined previous tractor distribution programmes.
“The question of what is happening to the tractors is a very pertinent one.
“We are working very hard to put measures in place that will prevent a repeat of what happened in the past,” the minister stated, adding that in previous interventions, tractors were often allocated to non-farmers, which forced genuine farmers to pay exorbitant fees to access them, while many of the machines eventually became abandoned or dysfunctional.
“Thousands of people have applied, and they are currently undergoing due process for selection,” he added.
