FG, O-ORBDA Deploy Tractors, Equipment For 2025/2026 Farming

As part of the strategic interventions toward reversing the food inflation and achieve self-sufficiency in food production, the federal government on Thursday, handed over 16 tractors, alongside other necessary farm implements to farmers in the 11 farm settlements supervised by the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority (O-ORBDA) for the year 2025/2026 Dry Season Farming across the South Westgeo-politicalzone.

This is just as O-ORBDA also deployed personnel to accompany the tractors towards providing technical supports and farming guidance for the farmers across the communities under the O-ORBDA’s catchment area towards ensuring that the federal government’s mandate at overcoming the challenges of food insecurity in the country is achieved.

Speaking at the handover ceremony and flagg-off of the year 2025/2026 Dry Season Farming Campaign yesterday, O-ORBDA’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of the Authority, Engr. Deji Ashiru said the flag-off was a strategic roadmap of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration at guaranteeing food security for the citizens, “particularly when we can grow what we need to consume.”

Ashiru explained that “Mr. President, through the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, has given us a clear directive: irrigated agriculture must be expanded; dry season farming must be intensified and Nigerian farmers must be provided the mechanised support they need to increase yield, reduce drudgery, and compete in the modern agricultural economy. Today, we are executing that directive.

“We recognise that food prices have placed enormous pressure on Nigerian households. We recognise that our people need relief — not promises, but tangible, visible action. What better response than to deploy tractors to the fields, plant seeds in the earth, and harvest results that nourish the nation? That is the philosophy behind this flag-off.”

The O-ORBDA’s MD disclosed that the dry season farming was not merely a supplementary agricultural activity, but a strategic weapon in the Nigeria’s war against food insecurity.

“Irrigation-supported dry season farming is the bridge that closes this gap, extending food production across the full calendar year and buffering the nation against the seasonal shocks that drive food price inflation”.

“The deployment of tractors and implements to our eleve farm settlements today addresses this bottleneck directly, enabling farmers to prepare larger plots of land in shorter time, plant more promptly, and ultimately harvest more abundantly.

“Our officers will accompany the tractor deployment teams to provide agronomy support, ensure optimal land preparation techniques, and guide farmers on improved seed varieties, fertiliser application, and pest management.

Ashiru disclosed that the benefiting O-ORBDA’s farm settlements spanned three of out of the four catchment states of the Authority, which included: Sepeteri, Iseyin, Ofiki, Ogbomoso all in Oyo state, as well as the OORBDA Farm Settlement in Iwo, Osun State and Middle Ogun Irrigation Project among others.

Ashiru maintained that food security is not just a government objective, rather, it is a national survival imperative.

“As global climate patterns become increasingly unpredictable, as population growth places greater demands on food systems, and as economic pressures test the resilience of Nigerian households, the work we do in our farm settlements is more urgent and more consequential than ever before.

“This flag-off is therefore both a programme launch and a national call to action.

“Let our farmers rise. Let our fields yield abundantly. Let the South-West become, under this Renewed Hope Administration, a beacon of agricultural prosperity and food sufficiency that other regions will look to with admiration,” he said.