Empowerment: Gov. Buni distributes free farm machinery
Empowerment: Gov. Buni distributes free farm machinery
Gov Mai Mala Buni of Yobe has inaugurated the distribution of free farm machinery under the state’s Agriculture Empowerment Programme.
Buni, while speaking at the occasion in Damaturu on Tuesday, noted that the programme was aimed at transforming agriculture from subsistence farming to agribusiness.
He said that the machinery to be distributed included 40 units of Massey Ferguson tractors, 1,961 power tillers, 1,250 hand push planters, 553 multi-purpose threshers, 3,410 solar water pumps and 830 fertilizer applicators.
According to him, the others are 195 Crop Residue crushers, 495 Crop Residue choppers and 80 tricycles and motorcycles.
The governor said that farmers would also benefit from 4,500 bags of NPK fertilizer, 20,000 assorted improved seeds, assorted agro chemicals, 4,000 bunch of cassava stems and assorted certified seeds under the programme.
Buni, however, directed that fertilizer should be sold to farmers at a 50 per cent discount.
He recalled that a similar programme was inaugurated in the state by Vice President Kashim Shetima in July 2024, in which 5,300 farmers received 100 tractors and over 6,000 other farm machinery.
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The governor said that the success recorded by the programme’s implementation in 2024 prompted a repeat of it in 2025.
Buni noted that agriculture remained the main occupation of over 90 per cent of the people of the state who were either engaged in crop production, livestock production or both.
“Therefore, this becomes necessary for the government to be more committed to developing the sector for our people to migrate from subsistence farming to mechanized agriculture,” he said.
In his remarks, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Ali Goniri, assured the governor that only genuine farmers would benefit from the inputs.
