The tractors unveiled in June 2025 with fanfare are now rusting away in Abuja
By Tolu Odegbesan
On the outskirts of Gwagwalada, Abuja, within the vicinity of the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC), rows of red-and-black machines sit in silence.
Tractors, bulldozers and mobile workshops—lined up neatly—are gathering dust.
They are fully mechanised farm equipment shipped more than 7,800 kilometres from Belarus to Nigeria, intended to transform smallholder farming, reduce back-breaking labour and boost agricultural yields.
In June 2025, these machines were unveiled to national fanfare.
President Bola Tinubu launched the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanisation Programme, also known as the Belarus Project, promising a turning point for Nigeria’s food system.
Implemented in collaboration with AfTrade DMCC and supported by the Republic of Belarus, the programme was framed as a bold intervention to modernise agriculture and attract young Nigerians back to cultivating the land.
However, seven months later, like most government projects that are often unveiled with fanfare, the tractors meant to make farming ‘sexy’ for youths sit idle.
