The Benue State Government has said it is set for the takeoff of its dry season farming programme scheduled for December 2025.
The assurance followed Governor Hyacinth Alia’s inspection of the Agribusiness and Mechanisation Centre in Makurdi, where newly assembled tractors and farm equipment are being prepared for deployment.
Tersoo Kula, Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, said the visit was aimed at confirming the state’s readiness for the new agricultural phase.
Mr Kula explained that the governor assessed 41 tractors of different capacities, along with a range of supporting machines such as threshers, planters, excavators and yam mounders.
He said the centre is a product of a Public Private Partnership involving Mass International and Equipment Nigeria Limited and driven by the Bureau for Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
Governor Alia said the partnership is already producing results.
He noted that more than nine hundred young people have been trained in tractor assembly and modern farming methods.
He added that demonstration farms at the centre are showing improved varieties of cocoa, papaya, rice and oil palm.
“Today, I visited the Benue State Agribusiness and Mechanisation Centre to inspect ongoing work at our new tractor and equipment assembly plant, where 41 newly assembled tractors and several complementary farm machines are ready to support our dry season farming programme beginning this December,” the governor said.
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The governor directed the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security to mark out all government agricultural lands for immediate planting and replanting of improved seedlings.
He listed oranges, mangoes, guinea corn, wheat, barley and sorghum as priority crops under the new plan.
He urged farmers across the state to access the improved seedlings now available at the Bureau of Agricultural Development and Mechanisation.
Mr Alia said these inputs would help drive the administration’s goal of full agricultural mechanisation.
