With the smallholder farmers
producing an estimated 90per cent of the country’s food and contributing 21per
cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $477 billion, rejuvenating the
agricultural sector by digitising all its processes for smallholder farmers
through initiatives developed by the government would not only boost
productivity but increase the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by
$67billion, according to the National Information Technology Development Agency
(NITDA)
Its Director-General, Kashifu
Inuwa who spoke at the Policy Dialogue session in collaboration with the Office
of the Presidency, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Food Security and
the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at the Barcelona
Hotel, Abuja, digitising the operations of smallholder farmers is therefore the
right thing to do.
The Policy Dialogue Session
which with the theme: “Deepening Partnership for Scale-up of Information &
Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) for Smallholder Farmers in
Nigeria is aimed at fostering partnership among the relevant players in the
ecosystem to scale solutions for farmers in enhancing productivity.
Giving more insight into his
disclosure during his opening remarks, Inuwa said the policy dialogue is a step
in the right direction towards actualising the renewed hope agenda of President
Bola Ahmed Tinubu in diversifying the economy through the digital
transformation of critical sectors in the country.
“President Tinubu is committed
to uplifting Nigeria through digital transformation, innovation and economic
growth.
“To achieve this, the
President has mandated our Ministry, the Federal Ministry of Communications,
Innovation and Digital Economy to accelerate the Nigerian economic
diversification by enhancing productivity in critical sectors through
technological innovation”, he stated.
While maintaining that the
agricultural sector contributes about 70per cent to businesses in Africa and
contributes about 21per cent to the country’s GDP, he said that priority in
terms of technology penetration should be given to it considering its
importance.
Buttressing the importance of
technology on agricultural productivity, the NITDA DG added that “Nigeria in
terms of land size is almost 22 times larger than the Netherlands but in terms
of production, Netherlands is the second largest agricultural producer in the
world because of its use of technology”.
Speaking on NITDA’s commitment
to implementing the presidential mandate, Inuwa stated that the agency worked
with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in crafting the National Digital
Agricultural Strategy which also birthed the development of the National
Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture.
“We have implemented that
initiative in six states in collaboration with different institutions,
including academia, fintech and telco companies and we have established a
platform that provides a marketplace for the participants as well as to connect
them with financial institutions,” he said.
He further noted that a wallet
is provided on the platform to ensure that funds are controlled and properly
utilised for the purpose and beneficiaries it is meant for.
“I believe that with this kind
of partnership, we can scale up that platform and make agri-business a fancy
business for our youth to be part of it,” he added.
Earlier in her welcome
address, the Country Director of the IFAD Country Office, Abuja, Mrs. Dede
Ekoue thanked the NITDA DG for his participation in the steadfast commitment to
putting NITDA’s high-quality technical expertise to the service of enhanced
digital solutions for farmers.
She said that IFAD is
committed to promoting the empowerment of smallholder farmers globally and in
Nigeria through several solutions and is scaling up its support in digital
solutions.
“We invite all stakeholders
from the public sector, the private sector, civil society, farmer
organizations, and development partners, to discuss the best approaches to
strengthen our partnership and our digital solution. We are confident that
together we can do more, we can do better, and we can do faster to increase
access of smallholder farmers to digital solutions”, she noted.
In his remarks, the Special
Senior Assistant to the President on Agribusiness and Productivity Enhancement,
Dr. Kingsley Uzoma commended the DG NITDA for his active participation with the
Office of the President in different policy developments.
He asserted that sustained efforts at digital literacy in partnership with key agencies like NITDA as well as the private sector will be critical in ensuring greater technology absorption by smallholder farmers which can translate to improved productivity, extensive technical upscaling, promoting best practices and increased trade.
He also expressed the need for
a centrally coordinated agricultural data hub that would aggregate and provide
insights on open and targeted data that is relevant for planning, policy
direction and essential decision-making.
“Increased collaboration with
the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Food Security, and NITDA is necessary
to implement a national digital dialogue strategy to further leverage
technology for advancements from the agricultural sector,” he said.
Leave Comments