Kwara State begins digital census of farmers
Tunde Akanbi, Ilorin
The Kwara State Government on Monday identified farmers’ census through digitisation of agricultural value chain as a key parameter to ensure the success of the Kwara State Agricultural Transformation Plan launched earlier in the year for effective planning and support to the sector in the state.
“Digitisation of agricultural value chain is the bedrock of the success of the Agricultural Transformation Plan.
In that plan, the government says it has six major players in 27 implementable programmes which it believes will transform the face of agriculture in the state if well executed.
These are the remarks of the Technical Assistant to the Governor on Agriculture AbdulQuawiy Olododo at the opening of stakeholders’ sensitisation workshop on digitisation of agricultural value chain.
According to him, farmers databank has to be the number one thing on the Agricultural Transformation Plan stressing that this is simply because the government knows the importance of data .
Olododo added that to achieve huge success, the government need to work with data as it will give the government a strong foundation upon which it will work on.
“Without robust and reliable data, we cannot achieve success in the agricultural sector,” he explained further
Olododo said the state could not embark on data capturing of farmers without the inputs of farmers on how the programme will be run for a successful outcome.
“The most interesting thing about the exercise is that it is not just about headcount or registering people. For the first time in the history of Kwara State, we will be digitising agricultural value chain in the state and every information that will be taken will be hoisted in the cloud. This means that in the years to come we can always fall back on these data,” he said.
According to him, another beauty of this exercise is the authenticity that comes with it as there are levels of verification before a farmer or value chain player is confirmed.
On her part, the Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Hajia Maryam Nurudeen represented by the Director Planning Research and Statistics, Shamsudeen Aregbe said the project would develop a database on all the agricultural value chains in the state.
She disclosed that the objective of the digitisation of agricultural value chain in Kwara State is to carry out an enumeration/headcount of farmers in the State as well as those involved in the agricultural value chain.
According to her, the project, which is currently ongoing, shall develop a database on all the agricultural value chains in the state for effective, efficient agricultural planning, intervention and management.
The consultant in charge of the exercise and Principal Partner SME Capital Limited, Mr Adepegba said the stakeholders’ engagement was to address the concerns of farmers on digitisation of agricultural value chain and for easy recognition of the team while on the visit to their farms.
“We have partnered with the government to work hand-in-hand to get agricultural sector digitised. The reason for this is to ensure that the government truly support agriculture in the state and make the state one of the leading states in agriculture in Nigeria,” he said.
According to him , the exercise is to ensure that the government gets accurate data that will guarantee that the right attention is given to agricultural sector through various inputs.
