FACAN implores FG to establish digital task force for Agric monitoring

The Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria (FACAN) has urged the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security ( FMAFS) to embrace using digital technology to ensure food system monitoring towards achieving 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of food security in Nigeria.

The FACAN Secretary General, Dr. Nuhu Dogondaji said that the Nigerian agricultural system has been  long over due for digitalization towards efficient sustainable food security, adding that his organization is well disposed to improved technologies for enhanced productivity capacity of farmers.

The Project Director, ACVEP limited, Dr. Aloefuna Ekenechukwu, emphasized using digital potential to enhance food production, facilitate inputs distribution, and encourage value addition adding it would result into food system accurate delivery with easy access to getting financial funds.

Ekenechukwu stressed that adoptation of  digital technology to monitor agricultural system would enhance Nigeria being able to achieve 2030 SDGs for food security.

He said his firm is ready to partner with FACAN in view of their farmers' data base that would be useful to ensure efficient information and inputs distribution for produce' high productivity.

Ekenechukwu said that "  more farmers will be reached in the area of input distributions, value addition that will open up opportunities to financial institutions based on the trends of activities made by the farmers through data analysis shown on the technology application that is built to revolutionize the agricultural value chain to boost the economy” 

Responding, the FMAFS Permanent Secretary, Dr. Ernest A. Umakhihe acknowledged the potential of using modern technologies to drive agricultural system towards an improved economy saying that Agriculture being an important sector of the economy needs digitalization.

The PS representative, Mr. Ibrahim Tanimu, the Director of Planning, Policy, and Research, emphasized the sector's potential to contributing significantly to the country's economic growth through the adoption of advanced technologies.

Tanimu said that the agricultural sector is one of the biggest sectors capable of increasing the economic growth of the country and that can only happen through the use of technologies that can be easily used to measure and give accurate information to farmers.