Farm machinery ownership and management in Nigeria

Nigeria has suffered serious setback in sustainable farm machineries for agricultural practice due to nonchalant approach for machinery maintenance which has led to premature abandonment of most agricultural machines that should have been in use, if proper attention were to be given to them.The farm power and machinery status, use, ownership and management in Nigeria between 2009 to 2013 were studied. Three management systems namely: Government ownership and management system (GOMS), Private ownership and management system (POMS) and Cooperative ownership and management system (COMS) were considered in each of the states in the country. Personal observations, on the spot assessment, published data and structured questionnaires were used to collect data from agro- organizations in the country, on the bases of functionality, year of purchase, hours of usage, tractor make, purchase price, salary of tractor operators, as well as fuel cost of the tractors of interest. The results of the study indicate that tractorization index for Nigeria is 0.0841%. At the state level, Borno has the highest tractorization index of 12.4520% while Kogi state has the least value of 0.0015%.

Autorentext

Engr. Obinna Basil Onyeagba is a senior research engineer at scientific equipment development institute Enugu, Nigeria. He has authored/co-authored more than 12 scientific publications and conferences. He has masters degree in farm machinery processing and management with Ph.D on going currently in Enugu state University of sci & tech Nigeria.