Nigeria Moves to Build Unified Digital Farmers Register as Government Targets More Precise Agricultural Support

By Simpson Global Media News Desk

Nigeria is moving to establish a more comprehensive digital information system for farmers and farms, with the Federal Government calling for a national register that can identify farmers by name, location and type of agricultural activity and help direct fertiliser, credit, extension services and other interventions to verified producers.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, made the call on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at a national strategic dialogue on the implementation of the Nigeria Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth (AGROW) programme and its digital agriculture component in Abuja.

Kyari said the country’s ambition to strengthen food production would depend partly on knowing who the farmers are, where their farms are located and what they produce.

He said agricultural support would be more effective when information about farmers is accurate enough to connect the right intervention with the intended beneficiary.

The initiative is being developed against the background of longstanding difficulties with fragmented farmer databases, duplicated records and gaps in information about agricultural production.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security said the proposed system is expected to bring together existing information rather than create another isolated database.

It will build on the Ministry’s work with the National Identity Management Commission, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and other institutions.

States are also expected to play a major role in identifying, verifying and updating farmers within their territories, while the Federal Government will establish common standards for the system.

The latest push comes as Nigeria’s agriculture sector records stronger economic growth but continues to face challenges involving food prices, production costs, climate shocks, insecurity, market access and the delivery of public support.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, agriculture grew by 4.39 per cent in real terms in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 2.82 per cent in the same quarter of 2025.

The government’s latest digital agriculture initiative is therefore being presented not simply as an information-technology project but as part of a wider attempt to improve how agricultural policy is planned and implemented.

From scattered records to one agricultural information system

At the Abuja dialogue, Kyari argued that Nigeria needs to move toward a single agricultural information ecosystem.

The Ministry said the proposed national digital farmers register should reduce duplication, improve the accuracy of farmer information and support more targeted delivery of agricultural programmes.

The minister said the objective was to know farmers by their names, farm locations and crops.

The information would provide a foundation for deciding where agricultural inputs and services are required and who should receive them.

The Federal Government said existing efforts include a partnership with the National Identity Management Commission to link farmers with their National Identification Numbers.

The Ministry is also reviewing farmer databases with the International Fund for Agricultural Development and has worked with FAO on Digital Villages initiatives. Its own data and mapping systems are also expected to contribute to the architecture.

The intention is not necessarily to discard all existing records.

Instead, the government wants the different sources to work through common standards so that the same farmer does not appear several times in incompatible systems or disappear entirely from official records.

That problem is significant in a country where agricultural programmes are implemented through different government agencies, development partners, state governments, commodity organisations, financial institutions and private-sector operators.

A farmer may interact with several of those institutions over a single production cycle.

Without compatible records, each organisation can collect similar information independently.

The result can be duplication, inconsistent information and difficulty determining whether a programme has reached its intended beneficiaries.

Why farmer identification matters

Agricultural policy depends heavily on knowing the size and characteristics of the farming population.

Officials need information about what farmers grow, where production takes place, the scale of farms, access to irrigation, livestock holdings, input requirements and other characteristics of agricultural activity.

That information can influence decisions about fertiliser distribution, improved seeds, extension services, credit programmes, insurance, mechanisation and market infrastructure.

When information is incomplete, public programmes can struggle to match resources with need.

The Federal Ministry said the proposed register should help address this problem by establishing a common information base.

Kyari said that a bag of fertiliser or a loan would only be useful if the system could direct it to the appropriate farmer.

The principle extends beyond fertiliser.

An agricultural extension officer needs to know which farmers require advice.

A lender needs information that can help assess potential borrowers.

An insurance provider needs information about farms and production risks.

A processor needs to understand where crops are being produced and how much supply may be available.

A government planning department needs reliable production information when preparing food-security strategies.

A digital register cannot solve all those problems by itself, but it can provide part of the information infrastructure needed to address them.

AGROW gives the project a wider framework

The digital farmers register is part of the larger AGROW Project, formally known as the Nigeria Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth Project.

The World Bank approved a $500 million International Development Association credit for AGROW in March 2026.

The six-year programme, scheduled to run from 2026 to 2032, is designed to increase smallholder productivity, strengthen selected agricultural value chains, improve market access and create jobs.

The World Bank said the project is expected to benefit up to one million smallholder farmers and mobilise additional private investment.

Its priority value chains include rice, maize, cassava and soybeans.

The programme also covers agricultural research and extension, improved and climate-resilient seeds, fertilizer systems, post-harvest handling and market linkages.

Digital agriculture is one of its components.

The World Bank's project documents specifically provide for the development of a national digital farm and farmer registry, together with improved digital soil and weather information systems.

The digital component is therefore intended to become part of the infrastructure supporting the wider agricultural programme.

It is not being designed as a stand-alone database with no connection to production, finance or extension services.

A digital foundation for agricultural services

According to the World Bank’s AGROW project documentation, the digital agricultural component is intended to reduce transaction costs, extend the reach of advisory services and support better access to finance, mechanisation, climate information and improved agricultural practices.

The project documents envisage a foundational digital system containing farmer and farm information alongside soil and weather data.

The initial project-supported registry is expected to target approximately 200,000 farmers and farms, representing about 20 per cent of the project’s supported beneficiaries.

That initial target does not represent the entire Nigerian farming population.

Rather, it is part of the process of establishing a functioning digital architecture that can subsequently support broader agricultural services.

The system is also expected to be connected to Nigeria’s digital identity architecture.

That could make it easier to verify individual farmers while reducing the possibility of duplicate records.

But identification alone will not make a digital register useful.

The information must remain accurate.

Farmers change locations.

Crops change from one season to another.

Land can be leased or transferred.

Farms can expand or shrink.

New farmers enter agriculture while others leave.

Livestock holdings can change rapidly.

For that reason, the Ministry says states will have an important responsibility for enumeration, verification and routine updating.

States become critical to the system

The Federal Government is proposing that states serve as essential owners of the farmer-enumeration process.

This reflects the practical reality of agricultural administration in Nigeria.

Farming conditions vary considerably between states.

The crops produced in a predominantly humid southern state may differ significantly from those grown in the northern savannah.

Irrigation requirements also vary.

So do livestock systems, fishing activities, land-use patterns, market structures and climate risks.

State-level agricultural officials and local structures are therefore positioned to provide information that a central database cannot easily generate on its own.

The Federal Ministry said states would lead enumeration, verification and routine updating, while the Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics and the National Project Coordination Office would coordinate the wider framework.

That arrangement places substantial responsibility on states.

If farmer information is not updated regularly at local level, a national system could quickly become outdated.

The quality of the national register will therefore depend partly on the capacity of state institutions to collect and maintain information.

The problem of fragmented agricultural data

The Federal Ministry acknowledged that Nigeria has struggled for decades to develop a sufficiently integrated agricultural data system.

At the Abuja dialogue, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said fragmented data had hindered agrifood transformation.

He referred to earlier attempts to establish agricultural databases and argued that the country had repeatedly missed opportunities to create a stronger information system.

He described agricultural data and analytics as productive infrastructure, comparable in importance to physical infrastructure such as roads and electricity.

The comparison reflects the increasing role of information in agricultural decision-making.

A road allows agricultural products to move.

Electricity can support processing.

But reliable data helps determine where roads, electricity, irrigation, storage and processing facilities are needed in the first place.

It can also help determine whether an agricultural programme is reaching its intended beneficiaries.

The register is intended to reduce duplication

One of the strongest arguments for a unified system is the reduction of duplicate records.

The Federal Ministry said farmers can currently be registered through different programmes and institutions without those systems necessarily communicating with one another.

In such circumstances, the same farmer could potentially appear under multiple records.

At the same time, another farmer might not appear in any formal programme database.

That creates problems for planning.

If the government believes there are more farmers than actually exist in a particular dataset, it could overestimate the number of beneficiaries required for a programme.

If the dataset is incomplete, the opposite problem can occur.

The proposed register seeks to establish common definitions and identifiers so that information collected by different actors can be reconciled.

The Ministry said it wants an interoperable system with agreed definitions, documented interfaces and clear rules for data governance.

Interoperability means that separate systems can exchange information in a controlled and technically compatible way.

For agriculture, that could eventually allow farmer information to connect with financial, weather, insurance, extension and market platforms without forcing every institution to maintain an entirely separate record.

Data protection becomes essential

A national farmer register would contain personal and potentially commercially sensitive information.

Names, identification numbers, locations, farm information, production details and other records would need to be protected.

The Ministry therefore said the proposed system must operate within Nigeria’s data-protection framework.

It also said data governance would be part of the architecture, including rules for authorised information exchange.

This is an important part of the project because agricultural data is not simply an administrative resource.

Information about a farmer’s location, land, crops or financial activities can have real economic value.

Farmers and agricultural businesses need confidence that their information will not be improperly disclosed or used for purposes they did not authorise.

The proposed system will therefore have to balance accessibility for legitimate agricultural services with privacy and security protections.

Women and farmers without network coverage

The Ministry said the proposed register should include all categories of farmers, including women and young people.

It also said farmers in locations without network coverage should not be excluded.

That requirement addresses a central challenge in digital agriculture.

The farmers who most need agricultural services may live in rural areas where connectivity is limited.

If registration depends entirely on online access, the system could reproduce the very exclusion it is supposed to reduce.

Offline enumeration, periodic field verification and other methods may therefore be necessary.

The World Bank’s AGROW project documents also recognise the importance of reaching smallholder farmers and building digital systems that can support agricultural services at scale.

Digitalisation, in this context, does not mean replacing physical agricultural extension and field operations.

It means using technology to improve them.

Linking farmers to finance

One potential use of better farmer information is agricultural finance.

Smallholder farmers frequently face difficulties obtaining credit because lenders may lack reliable information about their production activities, assets, repayment capacity and market relationships.

A verified farmer profile cannot eliminate those risks.

However, it can provide lenders with more structured information.

The World Bank says AGROW's digital ecosystem is intended to improve access to finance and enable secure, permission-based data sharing with private-sector actors such as agribusinesses, input suppliers, processors and agricultural technology companies.

Such connections could support digital credit products, crop insurance and other financial services.

But the process would need to remain subject to appropriate consent, data-protection rules and responsible lending practices.

A database should not automatically become a mechanism for distributing loans without adequate assessment.

Its value is in making accurate information available for better decisions.

Better agricultural extension

Another potential application is agricultural extension.

Farmers need information about planting dates, soil conditions, improved varieties, pests, diseases, weather conditions and production practices.

Nigeria has historically faced shortages in the reach and effectiveness of extension services.

A digital system could allow advisory services to be targeted more precisely.

The World Bank's AGROW project explicitly includes digital advisory services and localised weather and climate information among the tools that can be supported through the digital agricultural ecosystem.

A farmer registered as a maize producer in a particular location, for example, could potentially receive weather or agronomic information relevant to that production system.

The quality of such services would still depend on the quality of the underlying information.

An incorrect crop classification could result in irrelevant advice.

An outdated farm location could undermine the usefulness of local weather information.

The principle is therefore simple: better digital services require better data.

Soil information and precision agriculture

The proposed system is also connected to efforts to improve information about Nigerian soils.

The World Bank's AGROW documentation provides for an updated digital soil map using modern sampling, crop-response trials and analytical methods.

The aim is to strengthen the information available for agricultural decision-making.

Soil information can influence decisions about fertiliser use, crop selection, soil management and productivity.

When combined with farmer and farm-location information, soil data can become more useful at local level.

For example, agricultural planners could potentially identify areas where particular crops are suitable or where soil improvement interventions are required.

Farmers could receive more location-specific recommendations rather than general advice applied uniformly across large areas.

That is part of the broader transition from generic agricultural support to more data-driven production systems.

Weather information is another pillar

Climate variability has become a major consideration for Nigerian farmers.

Rainfall patterns can change.

Extreme weather can damage crops.

Drought can reduce yields.

Flooding can destroy fields and infrastructure.

The timing of rainfall can also affect planting and harvesting decisions.

The World Bank's AGROW project includes support for stronger digital soil and weather information systems and for improved weather forecasting capabilities at the Nigerian Meteorological Agency.

This creates an opportunity to connect farmers with more localised climate information.

The value of such information depends on both its accuracy and the ability of farmers to access and understand it.

Digital agricultural transformation therefore requires more than databases.

It requires communication channels that work in rural communities and advisory systems capable of turning technical information into practical recommendations.

Agriculture is already showing stronger growth

The digital register initiative is arriving as Nigeria's agriculture sector records stronger growth.

The NBS Q2 2026 GDP report recorded agricultural growth of 4.39 per cent year-on-year in real terms, compared with 2.82 per cent in Q2 2025. The sector also improved from 3.15 per cent in Q1 2026.

Agriculture accounted for 26.15 per cent of real GDP in the second quarter, according to the NBS data.

The improvement was broad-based across the four main agricultural activities.

Crop production grew by about 3.66 per cent year-on-year.

Livestock recorded stronger growth of 6.92 per cent.

Forestry grew by 4.88 per cent.

Fishing expanded by 2.16 per cent.

The numbers indicate stronger agricultural activity, but they do not mean that all farmers are experiencing the same conditions.

GDP growth measures output at an aggregate level.

It does not by itself establish that individual farmers' incomes have increased by the same percentage or that food has become proportionately cheaper for consumers.

That distinction remains important in interpreting the latest agricultural data.

Growth does not automatically mean lower food prices

Nigeria continues to face pressure within the food system despite the improvement in agricultural output.

Agusto, a Nigerian credit-rating and research firm, noted that food inflation reached 20.31 per cent year-on-year in July 2026, even as headline inflation was lower.

The persistence of food-price pressure illustrates why agricultural policy cannot focus only on production.

Food must move from farms to markets.

Farmers need access to storage.

Perishable products require appropriate handling.

Transport costs influence the price consumers ultimately pay.

Processors need reliable raw materials.

Markets require information about supply and demand.

The proposed farmer register is therefore one piece of a much larger food-system puzzle.

It can improve information about producers, but it cannot by itself solve transport, storage, security, energy or market-access problems.

Linking production to markets

The World Bank's AGROW programme is designed around agricultural value chains rather than production alone.

It includes support for aggregation, post-harvest handling, agro-processing and market access.

The programme will also provide results-based support to agribusinesses that source from smallholder farmers.

This approach recognises that farmers benefit when increased production can be converted into reliable sales.

If farmers increase yields but cannot sell their crops at sustainable prices, the incentive to invest in productivity can weaken.

Better information can help market actors understand where production is concentrated.

Processors can potentially use verified production information when planning sourcing.

Agricultural planners can identify areas where storage or aggregation infrastructure may be needed.

Financial institutions can potentially develop products around verified producer groups.

The effectiveness of these applications will depend on how well the digital system is integrated into actual agricultural markets.

A role for private technology companies

The proposed digital ecosystem also creates space for private agricultural technology companies.

The World Bank's project documents anticipate secure data-sharing mechanisms that can allow authorised access by agritech firms, private off-takers, processors and input suppliers.

That could support new services.

Agritech companies could build advisory applications.

Financial technology firms could develop agricultural finance products.

Insurance companies could use verified farm information in designing agricultural insurance.

Processors could develop digital sourcing systems.

Input suppliers could potentially connect farmers with certified products.

However, the use of farmer data by private companies would require clear governance.

Farmers need to know what information is being shared and for what purpose.

The state would also need to ensure that interoperability does not become uncontrolled access to personal information.

The proposed architecture therefore has both an economic and a regulatory dimension.

The importance of data standards

A national system can only function effectively if different organisations agree on how information is defined.

What exactly counts as a farmer?

How is a farm identified?

How are multiple farms owned or cultivated by one farmer recorded?

How is land under lease distinguished from owned land?

How often should records be updated?

How are seasonal crops captured?

How are livestock producers recorded?

How are fishermen and fish farmers represented?

How are farmers in remote areas registered?

How are changes verified?

These are technical questions, but they have direct consequences for agricultural policy.

The Ministry has said it wants agreed definitions and documented interfaces for authorised data exchange.

That suggests the project is being approached as an information architecture rather than simply as a website or database.

The role of the Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics

The Ministry said it has finalised the establishment of the Federal Department of Agricultural Data and Analytics, which is expected to serve as a central institutional anchor for agricultural information.

The department is intended to help coordinate data standards and analytics across the agricultural system.

The creation of such a structure reflects the growing importance of data in agricultural planning.

Collecting information is only the first step.

Government agencies must also be able to analyse it.

Data can reveal patterns in crop production, input use, weather exposure, market activity and agricultural performance.

Analytics can then help policymakers determine where intervention may be necessary.

The Ministry's argument is that Nigeria has historically invested more in collecting agricultural data than in turning that information into actionable knowledge.

The new department is intended to address that gap.

The register must be kept alive

One of the most difficult aspects of any national database is maintaining its accuracy over time.

A register that is correct when created can become inaccurate within a few seasons.

Farmers may stop farming.

New producers may enter the sector.

Land may change hands.

Crops may change because of market conditions.

Climate conditions may make some areas less suitable for particular crops.

Farmers may expand from subsistence production into commercial farming.

Others may reduce production because of insecurity or rising costs.

The Ministry's decision to assign states responsibility for routine updates is therefore important.

A national registry will only be useful if information flows continuously between farmers, communities, states and the federal system.

Direct-to-farm support

The latest digital register initiative also connects with a request made by the newly inaugurated Coalition of Farmers Associations for Food Security in Nigeria.

The coalition, known as COA-FARMERS, said agricultural interventions should move toward a direct-to-farm model and called for quarterly dialogue between farmers and the Ministry. It said the coalition represents 99 farmer associations and commodity organisations across the agricultural value chain.

The coalition's request is relevant to the digital-register debate because accurate farmer information is a prerequisite for any direct-to-farm system.

If authorities know which farmers cultivate particular crops and where their farms are located, support programmes can potentially be designed around verified beneficiaries.

The federal government has not said that the register alone will determine eligibility for every agricultural programme.

Rather, it is being positioned as an information foundation for better targeting.

That distinction is important because agricultural support may still require additional eligibility criteria.

The political context

The inauguration of COA-FARMERS has also acquired a political dimension after the coalition publicly pledged support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's re-election campaign. The Federal Ministry of Information included that pledge in its report on the September 28 inauguration.

The digital farmers-register initiative discussed on September 29 is separate from that campaign pledge and is being presented by the Agriculture Ministry as part of the AGROW agricultural programme.

For agricultural administration, the immediate technical question remains whether the proposed data system can produce reliable, current and interoperable information.

The political context does not change the technical requirements of building and maintaining such a system.

Building on earlier registry efforts

The latest announcement is also not the first time Nigeria has pursued a national digital farmer database.

The Federal Ministry's publications show that a National Stakeholder Workshop on best practices for a National Digital Farmers Registry was held in 2025 under the Federal Government-IFAD Digital Innovation Action Plan.

The Ministry said that earlier initiative sought to harmonise farmer records and use the National Identification Number as an anchor for the system.

The September 2026 dialogue therefore represents another stage in an effort that has been developing over several years.

The difference now is that the initiative is being linked directly to AGROW and its wider digital agricultural ecosystem.

That provides a larger financing and implementation framework.

What the World Bank project requires

The AGROW project documents outline several technical requirements for the digital system.

They include digital infrastructure to host the foundational data, standardised data-collection tools, alignment with Nigeria's digital identity architecture and technical support for registry governance and quality control.

The project also calls for data-sharing protocols and interoperability mechanisms.

Application programming interfaces, or APIs, are expected to help authorised third-party systems communicate with the agricultural database.

The project documentation also anticipates data-governance frameworks that determine how information is accessed and shared.

These components matter because a registry that cannot communicate with other systems can quickly become another isolated database.

The value of digitalisation comes partly from connecting information to services.

Artificial intelligence and agriculture

The wider agricultural data initiative could also support the use of artificial intelligence.

The World Bank recently highlighted the potential of agricultural surveys and ground-level data to support AI applications in farming.

Such applications can include yield prediction, pest detection, customised agronomic advice and improved access to markets and finance.

However, AI systems are only as useful as the data on which they depend.

Poor-quality or incomplete information can lead to inaccurate predictions.

A national farmer registry could provide part of the underlying data needed for more advanced digital agriculture, particularly when combined with soil, weather, satellite and market information.

That is why the government's current emphasis on agricultural data is potentially significant beyond the immediate question of farmer registration.

Inclusion remains the central test

For farmers, the success of the programme will ultimately be measured less by the sophistication of its technology than by whether it improves access to services.

A digital registry that contains millions of names but does not improve agricultural support would have limited practical value.

The Ministry has said that the system should include women, young farmers and producers in areas without network coverage.

That commitment will require practical implementation.

Women farmers may face particular barriers in land access, finance and agricultural services.

Young farmers may require different forms of support, including technology and entrepreneurship.

Remote farmers may need offline registration and service-delivery channels.

The register will therefore have to reflect the diversity of Nigeria's agricultural population.

Security and agriculture data

Security is another factor.

Nigeria's agricultural regions include areas affected by insecurity, and farmers in some locations have difficulty accessing fields or moving produce.

The World Bank has identified insecurity among the factors affecting Nigeria's agricultural productivity and food security.

A digital register cannot solve insecurity.

But accurate information could help planners understand where agricultural production is concentrated and where disruptions are occurring.

It could also support more targeted agricultural assistance in areas where farming activity is being affected.

Any location information collected from farmers would, however, need appropriate safeguards because precise information about farms can itself be sensitive.

The wider agricultural transformation

The farmer-register initiative is part of a broader shift toward a more data-driven Nigerian agriculture sector.

The Federal Ministry's 10-year agrifood strategy also includes digitalisation of crop, livestock and fisheries production, digital advisory platforms, weather forecasting and market information.

The ministry's published investment plan includes targets involving digital advisories, climate-smart agriculture and precision farming.

This means the latest register proposal is not an isolated policy announcement.

It fits into a larger effort to make agricultural production more measurable, connected and responsive to changing conditions.

The transition will require investment in infrastructure, farmer training, extension systems and digital skills.

It will also require coordination among government agencies that traditionally operate separately.

What happens next

The next stage will be implementation.

The Ministry has said states must take responsibility for farmer enumeration, verification and updates.

The Federal Government will establish the common standards and coordinate the national architecture.

The AGROW financing window is already open, according to the Ministry, and officials have called on institutions involved in agricultural data to avoid creating separate systems.

The system will also need to establish procedures for data quality control.

That includes identifying duplicate records, correcting errors and updating information when circumstances change.

The government will need to determine how farmers are verified, how frequently records are renewed and how disputes over records are resolved.

It will also need to ensure that registration is accessible to farmers who lack smartphones, reliable internet access or formal digital skills.

Measuring success

Several indicators could eventually show whether the system is working.

One would be the number of verified farmers and farms recorded.

Another would be the proportion of records that can be linked securely to national identification.

The government could also measure how many agricultural programmes use the registry to target beneficiaries.

Other indicators could include the reduction in duplicate records, the speed of delivering agricultural services and the number of farmers receiving digital advisory information.

For private-sector participation, the effectiveness of approved data-sharing systems could also be measured through the number of legitimate agricultural services built on the digital infrastructure.

But the most important measure will be practical impact.

Are farmers receiving inputs on time?

Are extension services reaching the right producers?

Can farmers access finance more easily?

Are agricultural insurance products becoming more practical?

Can processors obtain more reliable information about supply?

Can government planners respond more quickly to production shocks?

Those questions will determine whether the registry becomes useful agricultural infrastructure.

The opportunity and the challenge

Nigeria has a large and diverse agricultural sector, and managing it effectively requires information that is as detailed as the country itself.

A farmer in a rice-growing area faces different production conditions from a cassava farmer, a cattle producer, a cocoa farmer or a fish farmer.

Even within the same crop, farmers face different soil, climate, market and security conditions.

A national digital system can help capture those differences.

But building the system is only the beginning.

The information must be accurate.

Farmers must be willing and able to participate.

States must maintain records.

Government agencies must share information responsibly.

Private companies must follow data-governance rules.

Technology must work in areas where connectivity is limited.

And agricultural programmes must actually use the information.

A stronger link between data and food security

The immediate policy objective is food security.

But food security involves more than producing enough crops.

It requires reliable access to food, functioning markets, stable supply chains and resilience against climate and economic shocks.

Better agricultural data can support each of these areas indirectly.

Knowing where farmers are located can improve planning.

Knowing what they grow can improve crop forecasting.

Knowing where production is concentrated can help identify transport and storage needs.

Knowing where weather risks are rising can improve preparedness.

Knowing which farmers have received support can improve programme monitoring.

And knowing how production changes over time can improve national food planning.

The register therefore has potential value beyond the administrative purpose of identifying beneficiaries.

Nigeria's agricultural data moment

The September 29 Abuja dialogue comes at a significant point for Nigerian agriculture.

The sector has recorded stronger GDP growth.

The government and development partners are investing in value-chain development.

AGROW has established a six-year framework with $500 million in World Bank financing.

Digital agriculture is becoming a central component of agricultural planning.

At the same time, farmers continue to face challenges involving costs, climate, insecurity, storage, transportation and market access.

The digital register cannot solve all those problems.

But it can provide information needed to address some of them more systematically.

The larger objective is to move agricultural support from broad assumptions toward verified information about actual producers and production conditions.

Conclusion

Nigeria is taking another step toward building a unified digital information system for its agricultural sector, with the Federal Government calling for a national register that can identify farmers, farms, locations and crops and help improve the targeting of agricultural support.

The initiative was highlighted on September 29, 2026, during the National Strategic Dialogue on the AGROW programme's digital agriculture component in Abuja.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security says the proposed system will build on existing databases and partnerships rather than operate as another isolated record.

It is expected to connect with Nigeria's national identity infrastructure, incorporate information from existing agricultural programmes and use common standards to allow authorised information exchange.

States are expected to lead farmer enumeration, verification and routine updates, while federal institutions will coordinate standards and governance.

The World Bank's $500 million AGROW programme provides a wider framework for the initiative, with the digital component designed to support a national farmer and farm registry alongside soil and weather information systems.

The programme is expected to support up to one million smallholder farmers over its six-year implementation period, while the initial digital registry component targets approximately 200,000 farmers and farms supported by the project.

The timing is significant because Nigeria's agricultural sector grew by 4.39 per cent in real terms in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 2.82 per cent a year earlier.

Crop production grew by 3.66 per cent, livestock by 6.92 per cent, forestry by 4.88 per cent and fishing by 2.16 per cent.

Yet stronger output does not automatically eliminate food-price pressure or improve the income of every farmer.

The food system still depends on transportation, storage, processing, security, finance, market access and reliable agricultural information.

That is where the proposed digital register could become significant.

If it is accurate, regularly updated, inclusive and properly governed, it could help connect farmers to agricultural services and give policymakers a clearer picture of the people and production systems that make up Nigeria's food economy.

If it becomes another fragmented database, its value would be considerably more limited.

The central test will therefore not be whether Nigeria can create a digital farmers register.

It will be whether the information remains accurate and whether government, development partners and private agricultural businesses actually use it to improve services for farmers.

For a country seeking to raise agricultural productivity and strengthen food security, knowing who produces the food, where it is produced and what conditions farmers face is a basic requirement.

The September 29 dialogue signals that Nigeria is seeking to make that information infrastructure a central part of its next phase of agricultural development.