On Wednesday the 31st of May in Abuja, agriculture in Nigeria reached a new milestone as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) handed over the Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) system developed with the support of the Agricultural Market and Information System (AMIS) to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
According to the organizers, the CAPI system was created in a bid to ensure Nigerians have easy access to more data on agriculture. AMIS, which is an inter-agency platform housed in FAO, was initiated in 2011 by the Ministers of Agriculture of the G20 countries to improve food market transparency, coordination and monitor price volatility. AMIS participating countries include all G20 Members as well as Spain and seven additional major exporting and importing countries of the four agricultural commodities which AMIS covers (namely wheat, rice, maize and soybeans).
The Permanent Secretary, Dr Bukar Hassan who represented the Honorable Minister said, “The only way agricultural production can be sustained is when the farmers are able to reach out to various markets to sell their products and make some returns to enable them further invest. Therefore, today’s (Wednesday) programme gave us a unique opportunity to move away from traditional marketing, monitoring and evaluation system to a digital and sustainable method where we can ensure that whatever figures we are going to have in terms of production is accurate, and therefore food security will be ensured.”
