African agriculture is still largely dependent on human resources. Agricultural mechanization is still in its infancy. In sub-Saharan Africa, only about 5% of the land uses mechanized farmland. Nigeria, as the largest agricultural and economic country in Africa, has 490 million mu of arable land, about one-fifth of China's. However, the number of agricultural tractors is less than 50,000, which is only 0.2% of China's. Other agricultural cultivation and processing equipment is also seriously lacking. In fact, in the past half century, the agricultural mechanization level of many African countries, represented by Nigeria, has stagnated or even retrogressed.
In the case of relatively backward overall development level, the development of Agricultural Mechanization in Nigeria is very unbalanced. Some private farms are equipped with modern planting and breeding equipment, and some agricultural products processing plants using large-scale modern processing equipment are also emerging. For small and medium-sized farmers, they mainly rely on manual labor, butsmall farm machineryis more and more popular, such as small generators, pumping units, cutting machine, grinder, pulper, crusher, etc. Nigeria's agricultural machinery relies on imports. Its manufacturing enterprises mainly buy cheap engines from China, India and other places to produce simple agricultural machinery.
Although the foundation is backward, Nigeria's agricultural mechanization is expected to be on the right track. The reasons are mainly reflected in three aspects.
Firstly, the growth of domestic demand.
With the development of the economy, Nigeria, as a country with a large number of arable land and a large agricultural population, has a huge demand for agricultural machinery, equipment and technology. For example, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nepal needs at least 747,000 tractors with plowing and other supporting equipment to meet the needs of Nepalese agricultural development.
Secondly, the government attaches great importance to it.
With the decline of the petroleum economy, Nepal has increased its attention and investment in agriculture in recent years. From the federal government to the states, special funds have been set up to subsidize farmers'purchase of agricultural machinery. The government has issued policies to encourage and promote agricultural mechanization, such as exempting imported agricultural machinery and equipment from tariffs, encouraging foreign investors to mechanize planting in the country, and organizing various exhibitions of agricultural machinery and tools.
Thirdly, international assistance.
On October 5, 2018, FAO and AU issued a new framework document, Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization: African Framework, which aims to improve agricultural efficiency by helping African countries formulate sustainable farm mechanization strategies. The international community, including China, has increased its agricultural cooperation and support to Africa. With the support and guidance of the international community, Nigeria's agricultural mechanization development is expected to achieve a breakthrough.
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