ABUJA Nigeria is moving towards a single national digital register of farmers, a reform the Federal Government says could reduce duplicate records and direct fertiliser, credit and other support to genuine producers.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Abubakar Kyari set out the proposal at a national strategic dialogue in Abuja on 29 September. He said an effective system should identify farmers by name, locate their farms and record what they produce.
The plan matters because weak and fragmented records have long complicated agricultural programmes. When different agencies and states maintain incompatible lists, one farmer may appear several times while another is omitted entirely. That can distort planning, waste public money and prevent smallholders from receiving support intended for them.
Kyari said the proposed register would build on existing work rather than begin from scratch. This includes the ministry’s partnership with the National Identity Management Commission to link farmers to National Identification Numbers, a review of databases with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Digital Villages project, and government mapping systems.
States would lead enumeration, verification and routine updates. At federal level, the Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics and the AGROW programme’s national coordination office would oversee a common, interoperable standard.
The government also intends to link state financing under AGROW to verified growth in the number of farms registered. The aim, Kyari said, is to reward accurate records rather than inflated totals.
Why reliable records matter
A credible register could improve decisions across the food system. Authorities would have a clearer picture of where crops are grown, which communities lack inputs and how weather, disease or insecurity affect production. Lenders and insurers could also make better decisions if farmers can establish their identities and production histories.
For individual farmers, the most immediate benefit would be fairer access to fertiliser, seedlings, loans, training and emergency assistance. A transparent system could make it harder for politically connected middlemen or fictitious beneficiaries to capture programmes before support reaches the field.
Budget and National Planning Minister Abubakar Bagudu told the dialogue that an authentic registry would improve planning, budgeting and coordination between the federal and state governments.
Minister of State for Agriculture Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi said Nigeria’s agricultural transformation could not rest on fragmented data. He described agricultural data and analytics as productive infrastructure, comparable in importance to roads and power.
The government also sees export potential. Traceable farm and product records can help exporters demonstrate origin, production practices and compliance when selling commodities such as hibiscus, sesame, cashew, ginger and cocoa. Better traceability does not guarantee access to premium markets, but it can strengthen quality control and make problems easier to investigate.
Inclusion and privacy will be decisive
The value of the register will depend on who is counted and how the information is used. Many farmers operate in remote communities with weak internet coverage, limited documentation and low digital literacy. Women and young producers may also be less visible in land and cooperative records, even when they provide much of the labour.
Kyari said the system must include women, young people and farmers in areas without network coverage. Meeting that promise will require offline registration options, local-language communication and verification methods that do not impose unaffordable travel or paperwork on rural households.
Linking farm records to NINs may reduce duplicate identities, but it raises important data-protection questions. Farmers should know which information is being collected, which institutions can see it and how errors can be corrected. The system will need clear limits on data sharing, strong security and a practical complaints process.
Land information will require particular care. Recording a person as a farmer should not be presented as proof of ownership where land rights are communal, customary, leased or disputed. Designers must distinguish between identity, land use and legal title to avoid creating new conflicts.
Accountability test for government
Nigeria has launched several agricultural databases and beneficiary lists over the years. The new effort will be judged by whether it connects those systems, eliminates duplication and produces information that agencies actually use.
Officials should publish the register’s technical and governance framework, including the minimum data collected, verification rules, institutional responsibilities and privacy safeguards. Aggregate progress figures should be released without exposing personal details, allowing the public to see which states are registering farmers accurately and which are falling behind.
Government should also disclose how registration affects eligibility for support. Farmers who have not yet obtained a NIN or live beyond reliable connectivity should not abruptly lose access to essential programmes while the system is being built.
The dialogue was convened by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Bank of Agriculture and the World Bank under the AGROW programme. It offers a chance to replace competing lists with a durable national system, but success will require cooperation among ministries, states, development partners, financial institutions and farmers’ organisations.
A trusted register could become a foundation for better agricultural policy and more accountable spending. A poorly governed one could merely digitise old exclusions. The next test is whether government turns the proposal into a transparent system that farmers can verify, challenge and use.
Farmers and agricultural organisations can share verified experiences of registration and access to public support with the Podium News newsroom.
