By Okwe Obi, Abuja
The federal government has commenced data capture for farmers across Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
Kyari said two million farmers would be captured in the next three months and that subsequently, the government would scale it up to six million farmers.
According to him, the initiative would help the government weed out portfolio farmers.
He said: “What we have just signed with NIMC is the development of the farmers’ register. We are going to use the platform that NIMC has, that is the National Identity Number (NIN) and also the card which will contain all the biometric information of the individual farmers.
“First and foremost, we will identify the farmland and also include the farmers. That is to say, we want to capture a genuine farmer who will have only one biometric and one NIN, so that in times of intervention, we will know who we are going to target.
“Firstly, we will have primary information. The secondary information will now give us the location of the farmland, the type of crops, soil, and the type of cultivation, whether it is irrigation or rain-fed cultivation.
“The initiative will forestall all the issues we have had, like the portfolio farmers and ghost farmers. In a sense, this is in line with Mr President’s eight-point agenda on food security to intervene and support real farmers who will now produce more and give us successful and bountiful harvests.
“The data of the farmers will be based here in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
“We have initially to register two million. And that, I think, will take at least three months. It is going to be like a pilot as we signed. Subsequently, we are going to upscale it to six million in the second batch.
“For registration, we are developing the template. But I must say that it is not the financial obligation that matters. We need to know what we are saving, bringing into the country in terms of the losses that we see go on and on. This is a way of saving a lot of money for the country in terms of food security.”