Agriculture goes digital | FAO hands over Innovative Agric Data Collection System To FMARD Nigeria

In a bid to ensure Nigerians have easy access to more data on agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Nigeria handed over the Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) system developed with the support of the Agricultural Market and Information System (AMIS) to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the 31st of May, 2017 in Abuja.

AMIS, which is an inter-agency platform housed in FAO, was initiated in 2011 by the Ministers of Agriculture of the G20 countries to improve food market transparency, coordination and monitor price volatility. AMIS participating countries include all G20 Members as well as Spain and seven additional major exporting and importing countries of the four agricultural commodities which AMIS covers (namely wheat, rice, maize and soybeans).

As part of the deliverables of AMIS, CAPI System, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, was developed in Nigeria for the collection of agricultural data. The CAPI system will be domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) for supervision and monitoring, following the handover ceremony to Honorable Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh.

The Permanent Secretary, Dr Bukar Hassan who represented the Honorable Minister said, “The only way agricultural production can be sustained is when the farmers are able to reach out to various markets to sell their products ‎and make some returns to enable them further invest. Therefore, today's (Wednesday) programme gave us a unique opportunity to move away from traditional marketing, monitoring and evaluation system to a digital and sustainable method where we can ensure that whatever figures we are going to have in terms of production is accurate, and therefore food security will be ensured.”

Some other stakeholders and dignitaries present at the history making event include: Representative of the Acting President, Mr. Oludolapo; Representative of the Ag, FAO, Mr David Patrick; Deputy Director of ICT, FAO Engr, Tunde Bello; National Project Coordinator AMIS, Mr. Olutayo Oyawale and National Communications Officer for FAO, David Karis Tsokar.

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