The Permanent Secretary of the the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Temitope Fashedemi, has inaugurated a technical working group on farmers’ data capturing to identify and develop modalities to achieve a seamless database for farmers nationwide.
Fashedemi said the committee would help shape the future of Nigeria’s farmers through proper identification, as it would assist the ministry in delivering agricultural inputs and support to the right farmers.
He revealed in a statement issued on Sunday that the ministry would collaborate with the National Identity Management Commission to achieve the desired database.
The permanent secretary recalled that recently the agriculture minister inaugurated the National Executive Committee on the Implementation of the Nigeria Farmers’ Soil Health Card scheme to enhance agricultural productivity and ensure a food-secured future for the country.
He said the TWG under the leadership of the director of the Department of Planning and Policy Coordination, with the participation of the directors of Technical Departments and the NIMC representative, would play a critical role in achieving the vision.
Fashedemi therefore tasked the committee to develop effective modalities for collaboration between the ministry and NIMC towards ensuring seamless data capture and management.
The Director of Card Management Services Department, NIMC, Peter Iwegbu, said the NIMC has the mandate to establish, own, operate, maintain and manage the national identity database in Nigeria.
He said the commission also registers people covered by the Act, assigns a unique National Identification Number, and issues general Multi-purpose Cards to those who are citizens of Nigeria, and others legally residing within the country.
He said the data capturing initiative for farmers would enable the government to manage its interventions across the country, validate soil, ensure predictability, and identify and channel whom the government intends to support, among others.
The committee’s terms of reference include developing a comprehensive work plan with clear timelines, roles, and responsibilities for each phase of the data capture initiative, and designing data collection tools and methodologies to capture essential farmer information such as personal identification, farm size, crop types, etc.
The committee is to identify training programmes for field officers and data collectors to ensure data accuracy and consistency, establish clear terms and conditions for the collaboration between the ministry and NIMC, foster a strong partnership, and any other relevant work/directives that will facilitate the work of the committee.
Members of the technical working group were drawn from technical departments of the agriculture ministry and NIMC.
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