Jigawa State has deployed 300 tractors with full implements, 60 combined harvesters, 80 boom sprayers, 150 rice seeders, and 150 maize seeders across 60 service centres statewide in what has become one of the most comprehensive farm mechanization rollouts in northern Nigeria this year.
The machines are being deployed through the Jigawa Farm Mechanisation Service Company, covering all 30 political constituencies in the state, with two service centres in each.
The Managing Director of the company, Dr. Ado Nasiru, disclosed the details during the Renewed Hope Ambassadors’ nationwide media tour, which visited the state’s facilities at the Mallam Aminu Kano Triangle in Dutse.
Each service centre is staffed and equipped with operational infrastructure.
The company has trained 60 technicians and engaged 360 machine operators, alongside an additional 60 local technicians recruited specifically for maintenance.
The initial batch of 30 technicians received training abroad, after which they trained others locally, a model designed to sustain technical capacity within the state rather than depend on outside support.
Jigawa is already Nigeria’s second-largest rice-producing state and the country’s leading producer of hibiscus, sesame, wheat, and sorghum. In the last wet season alone, the state cultivated more than 200 hectares of rice under state-supported initiatives, Dr. Nasiru said.
The mechanization programme is designed to expand that significantly. The service company’s digital booking platform allows farmers to reserve mechanized services remotely, with costs expected to be subsidised to improve access for smallholders.
Beyond production, the intervention is generating employment directly. Hundreds of personnel are engaged in operations, maintenance, and logistics across the 60 centres statewide. About 310 security personnel have also been deployed to protect equipment and facilities across the network.
Governor Umar Namadi’s administration has set a target of 500,000 hectares of dry season rice cultivation by 2030, with a long-term goal of cultivating 1.2 million hectares during the rainy season, which would enable the state to produce up to 3.6 million metric tonnes of rice annually. The state is currently scaling up from 200,000 hectares of rice cultivation in 2024 to 250,000 this year.
Jigawa also accounts for 75 percent of Nigeria’s non-oil agricultural exports, according to the governor. On wheat, the state expanded from 55,000 hectares in 2024 to 105,000 in 2025. Earlier this year, Liberia sent a formal delegation to Dutse to study the state’s rice value chain after the country’s agricultural minister cited Jigawa’s transformation from 70,000 to 370,000 hectares of cultivated farmland as a model worth replicating.
The Jigawa mechanization drive mirrors similar efforts in other northern states. Niger State recently launched what it described as its largest mechanization push to achieve 500,000 metric tonnes of food this farming season, while the Federal Government has been scaling its National Agricultural Mechanization Programme through the Bank of Agriculture.
