FG targets 5,000 women, youths in agricultural mechanization drive

By Stella Odueme

The Federal Government has unveiled the AGRI360 Mechanization Training Initiative, targeting 5,000 women and youths as part of efforts to build a mechanization-as-a-service economy and promote year-round food production in Nigeria.

The initiative was unveiled during the National Colloquium on the Role of Women and Youth in Advancing Agricultural Mechanization, held at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.

According to a statement by the Head, Department of Information, Ezeaja Ikemefuna, on Thursday, the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who was represented by the wife of the Vice President, Hajiya Nana Shettima, commended the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for introducing the programme.

She said AGRI360 would equip 5,000 women and young Nigerians with skills in agricultural mechanization, digital agriculture, equipment operation and maintenance, entrepreneurship and agribusiness management.

According to her, empowering women and youths with the skills, tools and opportunities required for modern agriculture would strengthen the agricultural sector and create new economic opportunities.

She said mechanization would increase productivity, reduce the physical burden associated with farming and make agriculture more attractive to young Nigerians.

The First Lady added that opportunities created by mechanization extended beyond farming to equipment operation and maintenance, agricultural processing, logistics, technology and other areas of the agricultural value chain.

She also noted that young Nigerians were already transforming agriculture through digital technologies, precision farming, artificial intelligence, drones and other innovations.

Setting the tone for the colloquium, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said Nigeria’s agricultural sector must move from dependence on physical labour to technology, enterprise and opportunity.

“A farmer using a hoe should not be expected to compete with a farmer using modern machinery. A young Nigerian should not look at agriculture and see only physical labour. The future of Nigerian agriculture must tell a different story,” Kyari said.

He explained that mechanization enables farmers to accomplish in hours tasks that could otherwise take days, while creating opportunities for trained operators, technicians, equipment managers, repair specialists and service businesses.

Kyari said the government’s ambition was to establish a mechanization-as-a-service economy where farmers could access appropriate machinery at the right time and at affordable cost.

He said AGRI360 would bridge the gap between mechanization skills, technology, enterprise and farmers, adding that the initiative complements the National Agricultural Mechanization Policy and National Agricultural Mechanization Investment Strategy launched in August 2026.

The minister also stressed the need to combine mechanization with irrigation and water management to enable farmers produce beyond a single farming season.

” We cannot continue to organize agriculture around the expectation of the rains,” he said, adding that access to both water and machinery would help extend agricultural production throughout the year.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Dr Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the three-year AGRI360 framework was specifically designed to address the gender gap in agricultural mechanization.

Abdullahi said women account for 49 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural labour force but remain systematically excluded from mechanization, resulting in forgone earnings estimated at at least $2.3 billion annually due mainly to low productivity.

He said AGRI360 was designed to close the gap by providing women and youths with relevant technical and entrepreneurial skills.

The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Marcus Olaniyi Ogunbiyi, said AGRI360 was conceived not merely as a training programme but as a national mechanization skills, enterprise and service-delivery ecosystem.

He said beneficiaries would have opportunities to become machinery operators, technicians, mechanics, drone operators, precision-agriculture specialists, software developers and fabricators.

The Managing Director of Mela-Chiyoma Pat Limited, Chief Engineer Patricia Stan-Dioka, said the success of the initiative would be measured by its ability to convert training into jobs, businesses and enterprise opportunities.

She said AGRI360 would expose participants to the wider agricultural mechanization ecosystem, including machinery coupling, maintenance, operation and service delivery.

Captain Tractors India, one of the programme’s partners, said it would deploy 50 tractors to each state across the country under the initiative and train and monitor farmers in modern farming techniques.

The company, which has 32 years of experience in the production of mini and small tractors and operates in 90 countries, also said it would train Nigerian youths in engineering and mechanics to maintain and operate the equipment.

The colloquium was attended by representatives of the governors of Imo, Abia and Lagos states, members of the National Assembly, the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, development partners and captains of industry.

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