The National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) was established by the Nigerian government to accelerate agricultural mechanization in the country. The Centre was sited at Ilorin, Kwara State, with objectives including providing guidelines for agricultural machinery importation, encouraging local design and manufacture of equipment, promoting effective cooperation among institutions, and offering supplementary facilities for manpower training in agricultural engineering.
In the 1970s, alongside NCAM, two tractor assembly plants were established with the aim of releasing 5,000 tractors per year. Despite these efforts, domestic manufacturing of tractors faced challenges, leading to a continued reliance on imported machinery.​
Over the years, NCAM has been instrumental in developing indigenous mechanization technologies to improve agricultural output, recognizing that imported mechanical technology does not always address the specific agricultural production problems in Nigeria. The Centre continues to play a vital role in reducing drudgery, increasing farm productivity, and improving farmers’ efficiency and income through the development of simple, need-based technologies.