(3 Minutes Read)
Nigeria’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, in partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), has introduced a data-capturing initiative for farmers across the country. The goal is to collect precise data on farmers to enable the government to better understand their needs, optimize resource allocation, provide targeted support, and ultimately boost agricultural productivity.
This initiative aims to build a comprehensive farmer database to improve agricultural planning and interventions. The partnership will draw on NIMC’s expertise in identity management to establish a robust and reliable database.
A Technical Working Group (TWG), comprising directors from various technical departments and a representative from NIMC, has been formed to manage the implementation of the scheme. The TWG will develop a detailed work plan with specific timelines, roles, and responsibilities and will design effective data collection tools to gather crucial farmer information, including personal identification, farm size, and crop types. Additionally, training programs will be conducted for field officers and data collectors to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the data.
This isn’t the first time Nigeria’s federal government has leveraged communication and IT to benefit the agricultural sector. In July, it announced the development of a web application designed to train farmers on best practices for various crops, available in major languages. In March, we reported that MTN Nigeria and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency had unveiled plans to disseminate weather and climate information to farmers and other users nationwide.
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Data is already transforming much of the modern world. In agricultural research, new forms of data are becoming available through Digital Data Capture (DDC). DDC promises to alter our ability to produce more nutritious food sustainably and in a way that reduces environmental harm and climate change by helping us understand the entire ecosystem like never before.
