The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, has called for a national digital farmers register to end duplication, target support to real farmers and secure food for over 200 million Nigerians.
The Minister made the call on Tuesday while declaring open the National Strategic Dialogue on AGROW Subcomponent 2.2 National Implementation Strategy and Digital Agriculture Architecture at the Abuja Continental Hotel.
He stated that Nigeria’s ambition to feed itself rests on knowing every farmer by name, farm location and what they grow, noting that a bag of fertilizer or a loan is only useful when the record directs it to the right farmer.
According to him, the work will build on what already exists, including the Ministry’s partnership with National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to link farmers to their National Identity Number (NIN), the review of existing farmer databases with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Digital Villages project with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and the Ministry’s own data and mapping systems.
He charged States as essential owners to lead enumeration, verification and routine updates, while the Federal Ministry through Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics (FDADA) and the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) coordinates and enforces a single interoperable standard.
In a statement by the Head, Department of Information,Ezeaja Ikemefuna, the Minister stressed the need for one agricultural information ecosystem with agreed definitions, documented interfaces for authorized exchange, and clear data governance within Nigeria’s national digital infrastructure and data protection law.
Kyari added that State financing under AGROW will be linked to verified growth in farms registered, to ensure accuracy over mere numbers, and that the register must count every farmer including women, youth and those in areas without network coverage.
“We did not start talking about this today. Let this be the Dialogue that build Nigeria’s farmer registry,” he said.
In his remarks, the Minister of budget and National Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu stated that stated that the authentic farmers’ registry would ensure adequate planning and budgeting. Furthermore, it would foster proper coordination between the federated units and the Federal Government to achieve food and nutrition security.
Earlier , the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi stated that Nigeria’s agrifood transformation cannot be built on fragmented data, noting that the Ministry missed several opportunities to build a robust agricultural data system since the Agricultural Databank Project of the 1990s (NIR/87/012).
Abdullahi, who described Agricultural Data and Analytics as productive infrastructure as fundamental as roads and power, situated the Dialogue within five national goals: food security, food sovereignty, agro-industrial growth, export development and foreign exchange earnings, and environmental sustainability.
He noted that traceable data is critical to stop rejection of Nigeria’s hibiscus, sesame, cashew, ginger and cocoa at foreign ports and to command premium markets.
Abdullahi warned that the greatest threat to transformation is not technology or funding but institutional rivalry and lethargy, describing siloed territorial protection of data as “the quietest form of corruption of purpose” that leaves farmers registered three times in three incompatible systems or not at all.
He announced that the Federal Ministry has finalized the establishment of Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics (FDADA) to serve as the sector’s data gatekeeper and anchorage, noting that Nigeria has historically invested heavily at data collection level but under-invested at knowledge and intelligence levels.
Abdullahi disclosed that the financing window under AGROW is open now and must not be dissipated into fragmentation, urging MDAs to be prepared to concede duplication, States to bring their readiness realities to shape the architecture, development partners to hold government to one system, and private sector to accept the discipline of interoperability.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Marcus Olaniyi Ogunbiyi stated that ‘’the AGROW Project provides an important opportunity to strengthen agricultural productivity, develop value chains, create jobs and improve food and nutrition security. Within this broader agenda, Component 2.2 on Strengthening the Digital Agricultural Ecosystem is particularly significant’’
Dr. Ogunbiyi pointed out that ‘’Agriculture is increasingly becoming data-driven. Reliable information on farmers, farms, soils, weather, markets and production systems is essential for effective planning, better service delivery and informed decision-making’’.
He revealed that ‘’One of the critical pillars of Component 2.2 is the development of a national digital farm and farmer registry. This presents an enormous opportunity to address a longstanding challenge in agricultural planning – the absence of sufficiently reliable, current and interoperable information on our farmers and farms’’.
The Dialogue was convened by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Bank of Agriculture and the World Bank under the AGROW programme.
