The Federal Government has flagged off the National e-agricultural Web Portal (NEAWP) to help achieve the diversification efforts of the government.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development , Senator Heineken Lokpobiri said “the NEAWP project is a strategic initiative to enhance knowledge flow between stakeholders and ensure inclusive and robust development of the agricultural sector. The e-Agriculture encompasses and showcases all aspects of the Food and Agriculture Industry/Value chain in Nigeria.”
The minister said the portal aims to highlight the strategic and operational components of the ICT driven Agricultural value chain in Nigeria especially as it relates to the Green Alternative Policy of President Muhammadu Buhari which is being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
”We are committed to ensuring policy consistency by leveraging on the successes and lessons from the agricultural transformation agenda(ATA) and our strategy is to work with key stakeholders in the agricultural sector to build an agribusiness economy that guarantees domestic food security and enhanced exports,sustainable income for farmers and job growth,” he said.
”The e-Agricultural Web Portal will integrate all existing and future agricultural platforms and mobile applications to create a One stop National e-agriculture presence,” he added.
Also speaking,Director General /CEO ,National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) said “the e-Agriculture refers to the process of deploying, adopting and accepting ICTs into the different aspects of the Agricultural Value Chain”.
”Some key features of the portal include providing a flexible system for identifying farmers in the country,giving a verifiable base of the farmers, incorporating a dashboard for presenting relevant data sets in easy to follow formats as well as providing a means of communicating key farming information like best practices and weather information,” he said.