The Federal Government has launched a transformative initiative aimed at improving agricultural interventions by establishing a detailed farmers’ register.
This project is a collaborative effort between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the National Identity Management Commission.
According to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, the first phase of the initiative, set to be completed within three months, will see two million farmers registered.
In the second phase, the registration will expand to six million farmers, with the ultimate goal of including all farmers nationwide.
Highlighting the need for the project, Kyari stated, “Many Federal Government interventions do not reach genuine farmers and agro-dealers due to the absence of a verifiable database of farmers across the country.”
He described the program as a pivotal step toward addressing these challenges, enabling the government to better target authentic farmers, enhance food production, and strengthen food security.
Kyari also provided insight into the initiative’s structure, “What we have just signed with the National Identity Management Commission is the development of a farmers’ register. We are going to use the platform that NIMC has, namely the National Identification Number (NIN) and the National Identity Card, which will contain all the biometric information of individual farmers.”
The register will include personal details as well as essential farming information such as farmland locations, crop types, soil characteristics, and farming methods, including irrigation or rain-fed systems.
“So, we are going to have a register that ensures interventions and support reach genuine farmers,” Kyari emphasized, adding that the system would eliminate issues like “portfolio farmers and ghost farmers” to ensure government support reaches those who genuinely need it.
In her remarks, NIMC Director General and CEO Abisoye Coker-Odusote reaffirmed the commission’s dedication to the project.
She assured that NIMC’s resources, including its network of offices across all Local Government Areas, would be fully utilized for seamless implementation.
“We have a three-month timeline for the registration of two million farmers,” Coker-Odusote noted. “We will utilise all our resources to ensure that the process runs smoothly. Our role at NIMC is to ensure that we use the NIN to link the end-to-end life cycle of farmer beneficiaries, enabling them to access government services at any point in time under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.”
This initiative is expected to serve as a foundational tool for improving agricultural productivity and ensuring that interventions are effectively targeted toward genuine farmers across Nigeria.
