By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Discussing is going on between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) on how to collate accurate data of farmers to facilitate greater farm yield countrywide.
NAIC Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Folashade Joseph, who disclosed this in Lagos, said a comprehensive data of farmers is required for agricultural insurance to be effective and sustainable to support the sector.
The PUNCH reports her as saying that such data is critical for monitoring farm activities, storage, and distribution of farm produce, as index insurance cannot function successfully without accurate data.
She disclosed that NAIC is about to deploy drones to inspect and monitor farmlands against flood and insecurity.
Importance of farm data
“Data for farmers will help us know how many farmers we have in each state and what each person is into such as rice production, maize, cassava and even processing of the produce.
“This is very important so that we can effectively monitor and improve on our processes,” Joseph said.
“The index insurance cannot operate effectively without accurate data. It is only when we have the correct data, which we will improve every year, that we can effectively achieve our objectives.
“That is key to us in NAIC, and we have spoken to our supervising ministry and other stakeholders like CBN on the need to get a perfect data.”
Anchor Borrowers Programme
The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) established by the CBN has made more than N300 billion available to over 3.1 million smallholder farmers.
Unity Bank CEO Tomi Somefun said last week that her bank, an outlet for the ABP, will support 120,000 maize farmers this planting season, per Nairametrics.
Nigerians’ appetite for processed food has increased, spending over N508 billion on processed food imports in the first half of 2021 (H1 2021), according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).