By KEMI YESUFU, who recently returned from China
The 1949 revolution, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), resulted in the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China and the CCP’s consolidation of power on the mainland. Several years after another silent revolution took place in China, it was the agricultural revolution.
It is safe to describe China as not just a vast country dotted with well-built and well-administered cities, but one which has cultivated land almost everywhere you look.
After a few days in Beijing, the beautiful capital city of China, I joined other participants for the seminar on Agricultural Machinery Development Planning and Safety Management for Developing Countries in a high-speed train to Jiamusi in Heilongjiang Province. For most of the eight-hour journey, both sides of the rail route were cultivated land with tall buildings in the background forming a nice combination of the two basic needs of man.
The team of participants from five nations, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, The Gambia, Pakistan and Jordan, travelled to Jiamusi to see more of the many factories producing the machinery and farming input that powers China’s mechanised food production. One of the places visited in Jiamusi is the fully mechanised and digitalized, Intelligent Farm run by Beidahuang Kengzheng Agricultural Machinery company. An interesting fact is that President Xi Jinping visited the same farm in 2018.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/rv_daDaYTdA?si=1gbiwpaLoY-KL8iw/ Areal view of a mechanised farm in Jiamusi, China.
Aside from the Intelligent Farm, there are other fully mechanised and digitalized mega and medium sized farms across China. However, the secret of the country’s massive agricultural output is the smallholders who form a large chunk of the Household Contract Responsibility System. The Household Responsibility System was introduced at a critical moment of China’s reforms which saw the country move from the Soviet model of planned economy, characterized by heavy industries and complete nationalisation, which yielded inefficiency and undersupply, to a more open country prioritising shared prosperity.
In his presentation on China’s level of development and culture, MA Teng, a Senior Engineer at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanisation Sciences Group (CAAMS), which hosted the two-week summit, told participants that strictly implemented reforms and, the adherence to the rule of law had seen China lift 800 million of its 1.4 billion population out of poverty. This is as Feng Li, a researcher at the Chinese Foreign Affairs University, traced China’s impressive economic indicators to the country’s past and current leaders sticking to people-centric reforms. Using data from 2024, Li further told participants that the Asian country’s GDP stands at 134,908.4 Chinese Yuan. The national income is 133,969.2 billion Yuan, industry output is 40,544.2 billion, the service sector’s total value is 765,583 billion, and domestic trade (total trade of consumer goods) hit 48,334.5 billion Yuan. For international trade, the total value of imports and exports of goods reached 43,846.8 Yuan, while the national per capita disposable income is 41,314 Yuan. But as explained by Li, China still considers itself to adeveloping country because of the rural poor whom the government is working assiduously to pull as many out of poverty.
Unlike in Nigeria, where experts and the media, based on the socioeconomic realities, have cause to dispute exciting economic indicators from the government, in China, the country’s much-touted shared prosperity philosophy is easy to see in Beijing, Jiamusi and Changchun. In the three cities visited by participants, my keen observation showed that there aren’t glaring social disparities between the two cities, far from China’s capital city. In fact, Jiamusi is home to 24 Fortune Global 500 companies. One of the thriving businesses in Jiamusi is Jichin Tractors, which produces thousands of tractors from 30-300 HP annually. Another is the Beidahuang Kengzheng Agricultural Machinery company which produces thousands of tractors and farm machinery yearly. The majority of the customers of China’s manufacturers come from within and the neighbouring countries, with the Chinese government backing these companies’ push to sell more overseas.
It was therefore disheartening to return to Nigeria and reading about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu proudly announcing the distribution of 2,000 tractors and thousands of farming implements under the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanisation Programme. The initiative, according to the President is aimed at boosting food security and national prosperity. Speaking during the launch of the programme in Abuja on Monday, June 24, Tinubu said: “Today, we take a monumental leap forward with the introduction of the state-of-the-art tractors through our new agricultural mechanisation programme. We are very proud of what we are doing”.
Undoubtedly, Nigeria cannot solve its food supply and hunger problem with tokenistic interventions such as the distribution of 2,000 tractors and thousands of farming implements. In 2024, Nigeria ranked 110th out of 127 countries on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), with a score of 28.8/100. Further breakdown of the data from GHI shows that 18.0% of Nigeria’s estimated over 200 million population are undernourished, while 31.5% of children under five are stunted. Again, 6.5% of children under five are wasted even as 10.7%. of children die due to a deadly mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments. Water and sanitation are also huge problems especially in rural areas and among the urban poor.
While China’s degree of mechanisation in crop growing, including land cultivation, sowing and harvesting, reached 72.03 % in 2021, as reported by ScienceDirect.com, in 2025, Nigeria’s leader is boasting of changing lives with the deployment of 2,000 tractors, 50 industrial-grade land preparation bulldozers, 12 fully equipped mobile workshops, and over 8,000 specialised farming implements, to improve food production for the country’s over 200 million, youth-heavy population.
Beyond the distribution of tractors and other farm equipment, President Tinubu must honestly confront other challenges that prevent the country from improving agricultural mechanisation from its current 10 percent level. Some of these challenges include: high cost and limited access to machinery, inadequate maintenance facilities and poor basic infrastructure as well as energy constraints. Other challenges include fragmented landholdings and tenure issues. Small, fragmented landholdings, common in many parts of Nigeria make it difficult to efficiently utilise large-scale machinery.
Again, in many cultures in Nigeria, women don’t inherit land; they have to rent or lease at high cost, even though women constitute a significant majority of peasant farmers, with estimates ranging from 70% to over 75%. Farmers, especially the women, also struggle to secure loans or credit to purchase machinery, especially those with limited collateral. To solve the twin problems of land ownership and machinery acquisition, the government can localise the Chinese model of Household Responsibility Contract in which families or communities come together to sign a contract with government on farming and food production, which is beneficial to both parties. Other problems stalling agricultural mechanisation include the lack of skilled labour and technical expertise and lack of effective extension services and training programs. Then there is the huge problem of bloody attacks on farms which have seen large numbers of rural dwellers abandoning farmlands. The violent attacks have led to fluctuations in the sector’s contributions to the economy. In 2020, Agriculture contributed 25.70% to the GDP, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Aside from allocating the highest figure to defence in the annual budget, the Federal Government must seek better means of dealing with banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling.
Again, to improve agricultural mechanisation in Nigeria, a multifaceted approach is needed, including policy reforms, increased access to credit, training programs, and public-private partnerships. Specifically, this involves supporting local machine production, strengthening existing institutions, and promoting the use of modern machinery and equipment. In improving the level of farm mechanisation Nigeria can also learn from China when it comes to maintaining safety. In her presentation titled China’s Machinery Safety Supervision and Management Policies and Practices, Prof. Hua Dengfeng, disclosed that in 1978, a total of 59,546 agricultural accidents occurred with 9,734 killed and 15,326 injured. However, with nationally set and strictly implemented safety rules and laws, between 2012 to 2024, the number of accidents reduced from 2000 with 900 injuries and 700 fatalities to nil recorded accidents, injuries and mortality.
How can Nigeria collaborate with China on agricultural mechanisation? To significantly improve agricultural mechanisation, Nigeria can collaborate, as already done with Belarus and China, which is an even bigger and tested partner. Nigeria can easily key into its long history of trade and other forms of collaboration with China. By 2023, trade between China and Nigeria reached $22.56 billion, with Nigeria being China’s third-largest trading partner in Africa. In 2023, the top exports from Nigeria to China included Petroleum Gas ($995M), Crude Petroleum ($409M), and Other Mineral ($293M), according to The Observatory of Economic Complexity.
In 2023, the top exports from China to Nigeria included machinery having individual functions ($530M), broadcasting equipment ($486M), and non-knit women’s Suits ($452M), according to The Observatory of Economic Complexity.
From January to September 2024, the trade volume totalled $15.1 billion, with China’s imports from Nigeria increasing by 36.1% year-on-year.
The currency swap agreement between Nigeria and China, which was renewed in 2024 is worth $2 billion. The deal is aimed at reducing reliance on the US dollar, stabilise Nigeria’s foreign reserves, and boosting trade and investment. Nigeria is also part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Nigeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to join the BRI in September 2018. The initiative focuses on infrastructure development and strengthening economic and political ties between China and participating countries. Nigeria has actively engaged with the BRI, particularly in areas like railway and port infrastructure development. In building on its already existing partnerships and bilateral agreements, Nigeria can prioritise future collaboration on opportunities to improve mechanisation of agriculture in Nigeria as this critical to massive food production, ending hunger and poverty alleviation.
Kemi Yesufu, who is the Editor-In-Chief/ CEO of Frontline News Online, wrote in via: yesufukemi@gmail.com
