The take-off of the private sector-driven tractor hiring scheme recently launched by the Federal Government is impeded by the inability of the operators of the scheme to fulfill necessary financial obligations to enable them acquire the tractors, investigations by Daily Trust have shown.

The new scheme involving private individuals and banks was designed to replace the tractor hiring unit of the federal ministry of agriculture which is now moribund.

With the new scheme, the person who is supposed to be the service provider would pay 20 per cent of the money, the bank pays 30 per cent as a loan, and the vendor who is the owner of the tractor bears 30 per cent while government pays 20 per cent.

It was gathered that during the bidding process carried out by the federal ministry of agriculture last year, two operators won in the state, according to the state director of the federal ministry of agriculture, Mr. Adebisi Buhari.

According to him, the duty of the operators is "to go and establish the premises where the operation will take place and then start hiring it to people around them and begin to pay back, starting from the bank's 30 percent followed by the vendor himself and then followed by the one for government."

He explained that the tractors would be tracked to the extent that banks would know where they are at any point in time after they have been given out to the operators.

While the tractors for the state are still in the premises of the ministry of agriculture in the state, the director confirmed that the operators who succeeded during the bidding exercise has not paid the required percentage that would enable them take the farming implement.

He stated that many farmers have shown interest in participating in the scheme as he encouraged the operators to fast-track the process of acquiring the tractors.

On the conditions for farmers to hire the tractors, he said: "It is just a business, you just go there, you might be asked to pay down or pay after, it is just business. The only condition we set is for the person that will run the centre.

"He must have access to, at least, about 5,000 hectares, not that it would be his own but people who would be his customers, so that he would be sure he would get sufficient work to do and pay back as loan. Then he must have a secure premises and experienced operator."

Speaking with Daily Trust correspondent on the scheme, the State Chairman of All Farmers' Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Elder Daniel Ajiboye, described the scheme as a good innovation from the federal government, advising farmers who have the financial wherewithal to subscribe to it.

He said: "It is not for our members alone. Whoever applies and has the money would be a beneficiary. It is another innovation to ensure the farmers enjoy the benefit of government."

However, the state government said it was not carried along in the scheme, adding that it has no knowledge of the hiring scheme.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Barrister Kayode Towojuu, said: "We are not carried along as a state government. So I don't have any information about it.