By Anamati Inyang, November 19, 2025
The Federal Government has intensified efforts to streamline and sanitise Nigeria’s disjointed farmers data systems as the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD, convened a National Stakeholder Workshop on Best Practices for the National Digital Farmers Registry NDFR in Abuja.
Declaring the workshop open, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, stressed that Nigeria must urgently move away from its long standing practice of maintaining multiple, inconsistent farmer databases and adopt a unified, credible, technology driven national registry.
He described the NDFR as a key component of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and an important step toward transparent, targeted, and accountable agricultural interventions.
Kyari explained that past initiatives across federal and state agencies, as well as donor supported programmes, had produced overlapping databases plagued with duplication, inconsistencies, and leakages. “The era of fragmented farmer databases must give way to harmonisation and digital efficiency,” he said.
He revealed that the new registry is being developed in partnership with the National Identity Management Commission NIMC and anchored on the National Identification Number NIN to ensure every farmer is uniquely identified.
The initiative also features geo tagging of farmers and farmlands to enhance traceability, eliminate ghost beneficiaries, and improve planning accuracy.
“We are embedding strong data protection standards, cybersecurity safeguards, and national security protocols into the system,” Kyari said, adding that the NDFR will improve the delivery of inputs, extension services, credit, insurance, mechanisation, and market support with precision and fairness.
