■ Arbitrary powers to Governors .
■ Mechanisation – A Function of Availability of Land In Achieving Economy of Scale in Food production.
■ Nigeria is ranked 132nd out of 188 countries globally in tractor density

……@WufasAgronet, we don’t know more than Food
✅Earned FAO Top Fan barge.
✅Member NAAJ , IFAJ & AFAN.

GOVERNMENT POLICY.
At WufasAgronet, we advocate for the amendment of the ‘Land Use Act’ which has been unfavourable for Agricultural and Industrial development activities.
In repositioning agricultural value chain , it is imperative for the revival strategy of Nigeria’s economy to amend the ‘Act’
The Land Use Act (formerly) known as the Land Use Decree was promulgated on March 29th 1978. Stakeholders in Agricultural sector have insisted that the Land Use Act is a major constraint to the development and growth of industrial and Agric. Development in Nigeria
● Land Use Act is an act that vested all Land in the territory of each State (except the Fed.Govt Land ) solely in the Governor of the state who will hold such Land in trust for the people and be responsible for allocation of the land in all the Urban areas to individual resident in the State and to Organisations for residential.agriculture, commercial and other purposes.
Similar powers with respect to land in non urban areas are conferred on Local governments. The Agricultural sector hold the biggest hope for cushioning the exit of the country from poverty strikeness. Agroprenurial enterprises are the major catalyst for strengthening the economy and ensuring job creation . Although, the nation makes money from the oil sector but with not enough potential to create jobs as agribusiness. Government should create the needed policies and regulatory environment to encourage the growth of agricultural sector in addition with the support of the Development banks for Growth and Development .
The control of land by State and Local Governments made land unavailable for people who want to invest in the agricultural sector while at the sametime it is a disincentive to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) due to bottlenecks associated with land aquirement .
● The process of accessing land was quite lengthy and frustrating while taking control was a problem. The State governors are empowered by the act to withdraw Certificate of Occupancy that were dully issued without giving any tangible reason.

AGRICULTURAL MECHANISATION
Subsistence farming has been the bane of food sufficiency in the Sub-Saharan African Countries leading to adverse trends in development and other socio economic indices such as the recent global effects of the downturn which are COVID-19 disruption to the global supply chain , the escalation of hostility in Ukraine and Russia, two of the top ten Wheat exporting countries, the demand for food appears to be outstripping supply as a result of reduced productivity combined with post – harvest looses, explosive rate of population growth, challenges of climate change, scarce foreign exchange due to import dependence on food commodity import
The agricultural crisis have been exacerbated by the petroleum boom of the ’70s that lured millions from rural areas to urban centres and construction jobs.
Like the sayings goes in local parlance “Empty stomach harbours no thoughtful ingenuinety ” most maladies strengthening under- development may not be unconnected with hunger in the Land. The time is now essentially to accelerate wheat development plan to reduce reliance on importation .
Low level of agricultural mechanisation on farms across the country has continued to limit the capacity of farmers to expand cultivatable areas, perform timely farming operations to achieving economy of scale in food production. Towards the anormalies stated above, the inadequate technological imput had overtime reduced the amount of land areas under cultivation which contribute to low crops yield and livestock productivity resulting in very high post harvest looses in the country.
The level of mechanisation in Nigeria must increase to FAO tractors density of 1.5hp per hectare of land. or (300 tractors per 1000km) Nigeria with tractor density of 0.27hp/htre. (Astute Analytica Nig. ) must buckle up. Nigeria is ranked 132nd out of 188 countries globally.
Amongst technological implements for mechanisation are Tractors , Powertilers , Harvesters, Threshers, Crushers, Choppers , Hay bailers, Milkers etc.

LAND AVAILABILITY
Mechanised farming is a function of availability of land. Abundance of land avails in the Northern axis than the South which makes mechanisation more achievable on economy of scale considering cost of tractors which is in the excess of #15millionNaira per unit, excluding maintenance, spareparts, logistics, administration etc.
Niger state for example has a total landmass of about 76,363sqkm while the entire six states of SouthWest covers just about 79,000 sqkm. Also,the entire 5 states of the South East (29,525 sqkm) is even less than Kogi State. (29833sqkm ) Bornu stste 70,838sqkm, Taraba state – 54,172sqkm , Kaduna state 46,080sqkm etc. Mechanisation would thrive more in the North than southern part of Nigeria.

THE NALDA .
( Nig. Agric Land & Dev. Authority) responsible for land clearance which includes removal of tree stumps that can affect the efficiency of tractors and other equipment amongst others should be carried along.

● CONSTRAINTS ISSUES
A case was reported some years back when a foreign firm paid for about 20,000 hectares of land for Palm oil plantation to a state government, for years , the land could not be accessed
▪Currently, some very high profile Commercial Production firms were sealed up by various State Governments in which legal tangos ensued.

CONCLUSION
While the policies of government could be encouraging and look good on papers towards Agric and Industrial development the implementations are flawed.

At wufasAgronet, we are Competent and Reliable Food Technologists into Human Capital Development Consultancy in postharvest handling. Detailing the Ethics of food processing technology for the teeming youthful population, unemployment and underemployed graduates .
Email: wufasagronet@ gmail.com