Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have pledged to monitor and track the distribution and deployment of the 2,000 tractors and related agricultural equipment recently launched by President Bola Tinubu.
This initiative aims to tackle the underutilisation of Nigeria’s vast agricultural land—currently, 56 percent of the country’s 79 million hectares of arable land remains uncultivated, posing a major challenge to food security.
The commitment was made during a three-day National Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on the 2026 Agriculture Budget held in Lagos. The event was organised by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning (FMBEP), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), GIZ Global Programme AgSys Nigeria, the Community of Agricultural Non-State Actors (COANSA), and the ECOWAS Commission’s Department of Agriculture & Rural Development.
Andrew Mamedu, Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, stated that CSOs are fully committed to tracking the distribution of the government-provided tractors, adding that biannual progress reports will be published to ensure transparency and accountability.
“Civil society organizations are determined to track the distribution and deployment of tractors across the country,” Mamedu said. “This monitoring is critical to ensuring the equipment reaches the smallholder farmers who form the backbone of our food system.”
He stressed the importance of agricultural mechanisation in boosting productivity and reaffirmed CSOs’ role in holding the government accountable. “Going forward, ActionAid and its partners will consistently report on the deployment of these tractors every six months,” he added.
Mamedu also highlighted concerns over reduced government spending on agriculture. Despite some improvements in budget allocations over the past seven years, he noted a decline in 2025, when the sector received less than two percent of the national budget.
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He warned that inadequate public investment in agriculture continues to undermine efforts to achieve food security, particularly amid surging food prices, rural insecurity, and the escalating impacts of climate change.
