By Omoyeni Ojeifo
Nigeria is moving to establish a single digital farmers register to address fragmented agricultural data, eliminate duplicate records, target support to genuine farmers and secure food for more than 200 million Nigerians.
Sen. Abubakar Kyari, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. made the call on Tuesday while declaring open the National Strategic Dialogue on AGROW Subcomponent 2.2 National Implementation Strategy and Digital Agriculture Architecture in Abuja.
“Nigeria’s ambition to feed itself rests on knowing every farmer by name, farm location and what they grow, stressing that fertiliser and loans are only useful when records direct them to the right farmers,” he said.
“We did not start talking about this today. Let this be the Dialogue that built Nigeria’s farmer registry.”
According to him, the proposed system would build on existing initiatives, including the Ministry’s partnership with the National Identity Management Commission to link farmers with their National Identity Numbers.
The Minister also cited the review of existing farmer databases with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Digital Villages project with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, as well as the Ministry’s data and mapping systems.
Kyari charged states to lead the enumeration, verification and routine updating of farmers, while the Federal Ministry, through the Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics and the National Project Coordination Office, coordinates and enforces a single interoperable standard.
He called for one agricultural information ecosystem with agreed definitions, documented interfaces for authorised data exchange and clear data governance within Nigeria’s national digital infrastructure and data protection law.
The Minister added that State financing under AGROW would be linked to verified growth in farms registered, ensuring that accuracy takes precedence over registration numbers.
He stressed that the register must capture every farmer, including women, youth and those living in areas without network coverage.
Also speaking, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, stressed that an authentic farmers’ registry would strengthen planning and budgeting.
Bagudu added that it would foster proper coordination between the federating units and the Federal Government to achieve food and nutrition security.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, warned that Nigeria’s agrifood transformation could not be built on fragmented data.
“Nigeria’s agrifood transformation cannot be built on fragmented data,” Abdullahi said.
He recalled that the Ministry had missed several opportunities to establish a robust agricultural data system since the Agricultural Databank Project of the 1990s.
Abdullahi described Agricultural Data and Analytics as productive infrastructure as fundamental as roads and power, situating the dialogue within five national goals: food security, food sovereignty, agro-industrial growth, export development and foreign exchange earnings, and environmental sustainability.
He stressed that traceable data was critical to preventing the rejection of Nigerian hibiscus, sesame, cashew, ginger and cocoa at foreign ports and securing access to premium markets.
Abdullahi warned that the greatest threat to transformation was not technology or funding, but institutional rivalry and lethargy.
He described siloed territorial protection of data as “the quietest form of corruption of purpose”, noting that it could leave farmers registered three times in incompatible systems or not registered at all.
He announced that the Federal Ministry had finalised the establishment of the Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics to serve as the sector’s data gatekeeper and anchorage.
Abdullahi also disclosed that the financing window under AGROW was open, urging stakeholders to prevent the funds from being dissipated through fragmentation.
He urged 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 the private sector to accept the discipline of interoperability.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Marcus Olaniyi Ogunbiyi, described the AGROW Project as an opportunity to strengthen agricultural productivity, develop value chains, create jobs and improve food and nutrition security.
Ogunbiyi identified the development of a national digital farm and farmer registry as a critical pillar of AGROW Component 2.2.
“Agriculture is increasingly becoming data-driven,” Ogunbiyi said, stressing that reliable information on farmers, farms, soils, weather, markets and production systems was essential for effective planning, better service delivery and informed decision-making.
He noted that the national digital farm and farmer registry presented an enormous opportunity to address the longstanding challenge of having sufficiently reliable, current and interoperable information on Nigerian farmers and farms.
PerSecondNews correspondent at the event reports that 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.