To enhance accountability in farm incentive programs and agricultural interventions, the Federal Government has initiated the development of a comprehensive farmers’ register through a partnership between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
This initiative aims to create a verifiable database of genuine farmers across Nigeria. The process, facilitated by the National Identity Number (NIN), will include capturing each farmer’s biometrics, farmland details, and location.
In a joint statement released on Thursday, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari explained that the project is designed to address the ministry’s immediate challenges related to identity verification and authentication, which are essential for the efficient and accurate delivery of government services.
Kyari emphasised the importance of the register in overcoming significant obstacles in agricultural interventions in Nigeria.
“This initiative aligns with the government’s commitment to improving transparency, efficiency, and inclusivity under President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda, where food security is a primary objective. It aims to eliminate the challenges faced by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in effectively delivering well-intended government programs to targeted citizens,” he stated.
He highlighted that the initiative would facilitate targeted and “ring-fenced aid” for authentic farmers, which would boost food production and enhance food security.
“By connecting this NIN-backed registry to the Government-to-People (G2P) card, we will be able to provide targeted, ring-fenced aid to farmers and other beneficiaries of government services under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security’s programs.
“Adopting this card will enable us to uniquely identify all farmers and provide various agricultural services in a way that eliminates risks and fraud, while also ensuring end-to-end visibility throughout the agriculture value chain, enabling scalability,” he added.
The statement, co-signed by the FMAFS director of information, Dr. Joel Oruche and NIMC corporate communications head, Dr. Kayode Adegoke noted that agriculture services provided through the card will include farmer financing, input distribution, farmland mapping linked to identity, monitoring and evaluation of extension services, agency banking and various third-party services.
Additionally, the card will function as a digital wallet/prepaid card, specifically designed for government transactions such as subsidies, loans, welfare disbursements, pensions and various activities managed by the FMAFS.
With the G2P ecosystem in place, any program implemented by the ministry can now be independently administered and displayed through digitally enabled dashboards that showcase key data on the efficient execution of each programme.
Agriculture remains Nigeria’s largest sector, contributing an average of 25 per cent to the nation’s GDP. The introduction of the NIN-enabled farmer registry and the G2P card initiative offers access to verified records that the ministry can utilise to develop initiatives that directly benefit farmers.
