The National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has trained 250 tractor operators and mechanics under the first phase of a nationwide agricultural mechanisation programme.
NADF plans to train 4,000 operators and mechanics across Nigeria through the National Agricultural Mechanisation Service Providers Training Programme. Participants in the first cohort came from the country’s six geopolitical zones.
The 10-day programme covered tractor operations, machinery management, occupational safety, equipment maintenance and enterprise development.
NADF organised the training with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, AGCOMS International Trading Company and the Industrial Training Fund. The programme forms part of the government’s wider effort to boost agricultural mechanisation and improve how farmers use machinery.
NADF Executive Secretary Mohammed Ibrahim said Nigeria needs more than tractors to raise agricultural productivity. Trained operators and mechanics must keep that equipment working, he argued.
“The future of agricultural mechanisation in Nigeria depends not only on acquiring machines, but on sustaining them through technical competence, accountability, and responsible asset and environmental stewardship,” Ibrahim said.
The federal government has also tied the training programme to plans to deploy 2,000 tractors nationwide. NADF Head of Mechanisation Samuel Aende said earlier this month that the programme will build a pool of skilled workers to support that machinery rollout.
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Nigeria has struggled with low agricultural mechanisation for years. At the programme’s launch, Ibrahim put Nigeria’s tractor density at about 0.3 horsepower per hectare, against 2.6 horsepower per hectare in India. He pointed to limited technical skills and poor access to modern equipment as key constraints on farm productivity.
NADF also wants the programme to fix another problem: poorly maintained agricultural equipment. Ibrahim said previous mechanisation investments sometimes delivered less value because operators lacked technical capacity, maintenance systems and accountability.
The Industrial Training Fund will certify participants who complete the programme. NADF also plans to add qualified operators and mechanics to a national database of agricultural mechanisation service providers. The fund says the database could help public and private investors find people who can manage expensive agricultural machinery.
That opens a potential commercial opportunity for trained operators. Participants received lessons in enterprise development alongside technical training, and certified operators can now work with tractor owners, hiring companies, farmers and mechanisation service centres instead of relying solely on government employment.
Trained operators can offer tractor-hiring services to farmers who cannot afford their own machines. Mechanics can build businesses around repairs, servicing and maintenance.
Others could work with equipment owners, farming clusters and mechanisation companies that need skilled people to manage expensive machinery.
The government has also flagged opportunities for private businesses in equipment leasing, maintenance centres, precision agriculture and local machinery production.
Abdullahi Mohammed, national president of the Tractor Owners and Hiring Facilities Association of Nigeria, said operators and mechanics need regular training after machinery manufacturers leave deployment locations.
“We need much of this training. The service provider wants training, the operator and the mechanic also need this type of training,” he said.
NADF runs other agricultural training and support programmes alongside this one. The fund’s Farm Input Support Programme currently supports 109,000 smallholder farmers. NADF has also started training 1,884 agricultural extension agents and food security specialists through its Grassroots Digital Extension Corps initiative.
NADF must now scale the mechanisation programme from its first 250 participants toward its target of 4,000 operators and mechanics nationwide.
