By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The Kwara State government is set to digitize farmers’ data in compliance with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, CAADP, as a way to its agricultural development.
Special Adviser to Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulAzeez on Agriculture, Mr Abdulquawiy Olododo, disclosed this in Ilorin at a Joint Sector Review and Biennial Review Report on the implementation of CAADP.
The Review was organised by Public Financing of Agriculture, PFA, funded by ActionAid Nigeria, and implemented in six states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
Olododo stressed the need for data, even in the agriculture sector, to enable the state meet the CAADP commitment of allocating 10 per cent of its annual budget to agriculture in order to meet six per cent annual growth in the sector.
The Special Adviser said, “For us to meet the CAADP commitment of 10 per cent of annual budget, we have to plan and for us to plan, we need data.
“Data is the primary foundation upon which we can actualise the commitment.
“If we don’t have adequate data to plan, how do we want to make necessary provisions for what we need to do?
“Even from our agriculture transformation plan that we unveiled, the first programme is the farmers’ data bank, because we know the importance of having a data bank that we can analyse and harness data from.’’
Olododo averred that from that, “we can now begin to see how we can meet up with the commitment of CAADP and see how it can be achieved before 2025.”
Adding that credible and reliable data was also needed to roll out any intervention programme by the government, Olododo said, “It is not as if we do not have data in the state, but some are not reliable, there are issues with how some were collated in the past.
“Now, we are trying to update the existing data to be backed by technology, because that is one of the ways that we can ensure its credibility.’’
PFA Project Coordinator in Kwara State, Mr Abdulrahman Ayuba, said that the joint sector review was a key instrument for promoting mutual accountability.
He said, “It aims to assess how well state and non-state stakeholders implemented pledges and commitments stipulated in the CAADP compacts.
“It creates a platform to assess the performance and results of the agriculture sector and in turn assist government in setting sector policy and priorities.
“We are holding this State Level Dialogue on the implementation of CAADP for the purposes of agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition, economic growth and prosperity for all.”
