2026 Wet-Season: Federal Gov’t Mobilises N250bn To Support Farmers

The federal government has mobilised N250 billion to support one million smallholder farmers ahead of the 2026 wet season, as part of strategies to boost food production, strengthen agricultural productivity and enhance national food security.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, disclosed this during the official flag-off of the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme in Abuja, where the government also began the phased deployment of 2,000 tractors and over 9,000 implements nationwide.

Kyari said the funding, implemented in partnership with state governments, will enable 1 million farmers to cultivate an average of 1 hectare each during the 2026 farming season.

According to him, the intervention is designed to expand cultivated land, improve yields and reduce the financial constraints that often limit smallholder farmers.

He explained that the initiative forms part of a comprehensive agricultural financing ecosystem being driven by the administration of President Bola Tinubu to ensure increased food supply, job creation and economic resilience.

The minister noted that the N250 billion wet-season support is backed by a N50 billion catalytic seed fund with the Bank of Industry (BOI), aimed at unlocking agro-industrial investments at scale and strengthening the entire agricultural value chain.

In addition to financing, the government is scaling up mechanisation to support the targeted farmers. Under the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme, 2,000 heavy-duty tractors will be deployed in phases through Mechanisation Service Providers (MSPs) operating under a lease-to-own arrangement.

Kyari said each tractor has the capacity to service about 600 hectares annually, a development expected to impact over 1.2 million farmers across more than 1.5 million hectares nationwide. He added that many of the MSPs are youth- and women-led enterprises, creating new business and employment opportunities in rural communities.

He said, “This wet season alone, N250 billion has been mobilised to finance one million smallholder farmers, each cultivating an average of one hectare in 2026 in partnership with state governments. This is about expanding production at scale and ensuring that our farmers have the resources they need to succeed. Mechanisation provides the horsepower, finance offers the liquidity, and policy provides the stability. Together, they will deliver food security, job creation and economic resilience for our country. We are not merely managing scarcity; we are engineering abundance. Through these coordinated investments, we are mechanising productivity, industrialising agriculture and securing Nigeria’s future through food sovereignty.”

To ensure sustainability and efficiency, the minister further noted that the tractors will include two years of free maintenance support. At the same time, 36 mobile service trucks will be deployed for rapid technical support. The government is also establishing seven mega mechanisation service centres and facilitating the development of a local tractor assembly plant with a production capacity of 2,000-4,000 units annually.