The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is working with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to start a data-capturing project for Nigerian farmers. This project aims to improve the distribution of agricultural resources and offer better support to farmers.
At the launch of a Technical Working Group (TWG) for this project, Permanent Secretary Temitope Fashedemi explained the goals. The group will create a detailed plan with clear timelines, roles, and responsibilities for each stage of the project.
The project will develop tools and methods to collect key information from farmers, such as personal identification, farm size, and crop types. It will also set up training for field officers and data collectors to ensure the data is accurate.
The group will define the terms for the partnership between the Ministry and NIMC. The committee members come from the Ministry’s technical departments and NIMC.
Fashedemi stressed that this project is crucial for the future of agriculture in Nigeria, aiming to build a complete and accurate database of farmers. He highlighted that working with NIMC is essential to achieving this goal.
This announcement follows Nigeria’s plans to launch an app to train farmers on best practices and help them manage their operations.
Dr. Peter Iwegbu, Director of the Card Management Services Department at NIMC, said the commission will manage the national identity database. He noted that the program will help the government improve agricultural support, check soil quality, and better target assistance to farmers.
While this development is a positive step for agriculture, NIMC has recently faced issues like infrastructure problems and logistical challenges in the NIN enrolment process. There was also a recent data breach where unauthorized sites sold Nigerian citizens’ personal and financial information, leading NIMC to flag five websites.
