There is growing cause for concern that President Bola Tinubu’s latest push to modernise agriculture is already drifting off course.
Development Diaries reports that seven months after a grand unveiling meant to make farming ‘sexy’ for young people, rows of brand-new tractors, bulldozers, and mobile workshops still sit idle near the National Agricultural Seeds Council in Abuja, watching farming seasons pass them by.
According to a special report by The Cable, in June 2025, President Bola Tinubu launched the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanisation Programme, also called the Belarus Project, presenting it as a historic reset for Nigerian agriculture.
The country took delivery of 2,000 tractors, along with harvesters, workshops, and thousands of implements, all backed by loud assurances from government officials.
Yet by early 2026, reporting still shows many of these machines unused and undistributed, far from the farms they were meant to serve. Now, what was sold as a bold solution to food insecurity now looks like another case of big promises parked neatly and forgotten.
The gap between possession and use has once again swallowed a major public investment.
A key failure is how the programme was sequenced. The equipment arrived first, but a clear leasing and distribution framework only appeared months later.
When assets come before a plan, confusion is inevitable. Farmers are left unsure of access, while well-connected players move quickly to position themselves.
This pattern, where government buys first and designs later, has undone countless interventions before this one.
There is also the question of who the programme truly benefits. With a 25 percent down payment and 15 percent interest, the leasing terms shut out many young farmers in today’s economy.
A youth programme that mostly serves those with capital or connections will not lower food prices or expand rural jobs. On top of that, tractors alone cannot fix farming when training, maintenance, spare parts, security, and land access remain weak.
Nigeria’s agricultural crisis is not only about ‘lack of tractors’, but about the repeated cycle of tractors disappearing into bureaucracy and patronage.
The Cable, in its report, reveals that Nigeria has fewer than 5,000 functional tractors nationwide and that the country needs far more at scale.
It also references a previous ministerial statement that Nigeria needs at least 72,000 tractors for mechanised farming success.
So if the state finally procures 2,000 tractors and they still sit idle or move without traceability, citizens are right to ask of this is food security policy, or an expensive ceremony?
It is time for accountability to replace celebration.
This situation also goes beyond idle tractors to issues of rights and fairness. Food security affects the right to life and dignity when rising prices push families toward hunger, and the right to livelihood is undermined when programmes favour those who can afford a 25 percent down payment rather than those who can actually farm.
Delays and poor design hurt women farmers, poor rural households, young people without capital, and persons with disabilities the most, turning a so-called youth-focused programme into one that quietly excludes many.
Nigerians should now demand clear, public information on where the tractors are, who is using them, and on what terms, and track whether their communities are benefiting at all.
The Ministry of Agriculture should publish a clear deployment plan and tracking data, the Bank of Agriculture should disclose how many tractors have been released, where they are, and to whom.
Until Nigeria learns to deliver outcomes instead of announcements, these parked tractors will remain a symbol of missed seasons and a state that keeps promising more than it plants.
Photo source: The Guardian
