The Abia State Government has commenced a comprehensive statewide enumeration and verification exercise aimed at identifying authentic farmers within the state.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Cliff Agbaeze, disclosed this during a press briefing on Monday in Umuahia, following the State Executive Council meeting.
Dr Agbaeze explained that the initiative is part of the government’s efforts to eliminate the diversion of agricultural support and ensure that only genuine farmers benefit from interventions. He stated that technology would be deployed to streamline the process and enhance transparency.
“As part of this administration’s policy, no one will be recognised as a farmer without an existing, verifiable farm. We are geo-mapping all farms, capturing GPS coordinates and linking them to individual farmers, before any form of support is extended,” Agbaeze said.
He noted that data gathered from the enumeration exercise would be uploaded to a cloud-based platform, enabling real-time access to farmer profiles and locations.
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“With just a tap on my phone, I can identify the exact location of any registered farmer in the state,” he added.
Dr Agbaeze emphasised that the initiative is part of the government’s broader commitment to ending politically influenced agricultural interventions and ensuring support goes only to those genuinely involved in farming.
He further noted that beneficiaries of the government’s agricultural empowerment programme, facilitated in collaboration with CSS Farms, were selected from all Local Government Areas in the state. According to him, the government provided direct funding to these beneficiaries.
“We are closely monitoring their progress, and the feedback so far indicates that around 90 per cent or more of the trained farmers are doing exceptionally well,” he stated.
The commissioner reaffirmed the government’s dedication to maintaining a robust monitoring and verification system as a means to drive agricultural development and achieve food security across Abia State.
