By Woke Joshua
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, has called for the establishment of a national digital farmers register to eliminate duplication, improve targeting of government support and strengthen Nigeria’s food security.
Kyari 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.
He said Nigeria’s ambition to feed its more than 200 million citizens depended on knowing farmers by name, farm location and the crops they cultivate.
According to him, agricultural interventions such as fertiliser and loans would only achieve their intended purpose when reliable records ensure that they reach genuine farmers.
The minister said the proposed register would build on existing initiatives, including the Federal Ministry’s partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to link farmers with their National Identification Numbers (NINs), the review of farmers’ databases with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Digital Villages project with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Ministry’s data and mapping systems.
Kyari urged states to take ownership of farmer enumeration, verification and regular updates, while the Federal Ministry, through the Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics (FDADA) and the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO), would coordinate and enforce a single interoperable standard.
He stressed the need for a unified agricultural information ecosystem with common definitions, authorised data-sharing interfaces and clear governance arrangements consistent with Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data protection laws.
The minister also said state financing under AGROW would be linked to verified growth in the number of registered farms, rather than mere numerical increases.
He said the register must capture all categories of farmers, including women and young farmers, as well as farmers in areas without network coverage.
“We did not start talking about this today. Let this be the Dialogue that built Nigeria’s farmer registry,” Kyari said.
Also speaking, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, said an authentic farmers’ registry would strengthen planning and budgeting, while improving coordination between the Federal Government and states in the pursuit of food and nutrition security.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said Nigeria’s agrifood transformation could not be achieved with fragmented agricultural data.
Abdullahi said the country had missed several opportunities to establish a robust agricultural data system since the Agricultural Databank Project of the 1990s, identified as NIR/87/012.
He described agricultural data and analytics as productive infrastructure, comparable in importance to roads and electricity, and said the dialogue was anchored on five national objectives: food security, food sovereignty, agro-industrial growth, export development and foreign exchange earnings, and environmental sustainability.
The minister noted that traceable agricultural data was essential to preventing the rejection of Nigerian commodities such as hibiscus, sesame, cashew, ginger and cocoa at international ports and enabling the country to access premium markets.
He identified institutional rivalry and lethargy as major threats to agricultural transformation, warning against siloed management of data.
Abdullahi said such fragmentation could result in farmers being registered multiple times across incompatible systems or being excluded entirely.
He disclosed that the Federal Ministry had finalised the establishment of the Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics (FDADA) as the sector’s data gatekeeper and institutional anchor.
According to him, Nigeria had historically invested heavily in data collection but had under-invested in converting data into knowledge and intelligence.
He said the financing window under AGROW was now open and urged government agencies, states, development partners and the private sector to support an interoperable national system.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Marcus Olaniyi Ogunbiyi, said the AGROW Project provided an opportunity to strengthen agricultural productivity, develop value chains, create jobs and improve food and nutrition security.
Ogunbiyi said Component 2.2, which focuses on strengthening the digital agricultural ecosystem, was particularly important because agriculture was increasingly becoming data-driven.
He said reliable information on farmers, farms, soils, weather, markets and production systems was essential for effective planning, improved service delivery and informed decision-making.
The Permanent Secretary identified the development of a national digital farm and farmer registry as one of the critical pillars of Component 2.2, saying it could address the longstanding challenge of inadequate, outdated and non-interoperable information on farmers and farms.
The National Strategic Dialogue was convened by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Bank of Agriculture and the World Bank under the AGROW programme.
.