The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has decried the irregularities associated with the database of farmers benefiting from agricultural intervention programs of the federal government, describing it as being corrupt and politicized.
Kyari made this known when he appeared before a joint committee of the National Assembly on Agriculture to defend the budget of his ministry for the 2024 fiscal year, stating that the ministry can never get it right without clean data for farmers.
The minister disclosed that the existing farmers’ database consisted of names of politicians who are not real farmers, adding that the agricultural sector will continue to face challenges unless the farmers’ database is reviewed and equipped with the right people to benefit from the intervention programs.
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“I would like to say here that we need to work together with the state and also with honorable members of the National Assembly and the state assemblies to make sure and come up with clean data for farmers.
“It will take a while, but let us start from somewhere. Without doing that, we will never get our input from the right person at the right time, and this is what we have been trying to do,” he said.
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The Chairman of the Joint National Assembly Committee on Agriculture, Senator Saliu Mustapha, representing Kwara Central, assured that the joint committee will treat the budget of the agricultural sector with the utmost commitment to safeguard the sector and achieve food security.
The committee chairman commended President Bola Tinubu for identifying agricultural development as one of the parameters of the 2024 budget while promising their readiness to collaborate with various MDAs to ensure the development of agricultural businesses in the country.
