The federal government is to deepen its collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through technology to boost food production and improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers.

Ernest Umakhihe, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said this at the information communication technology for development (ICT4D) monitoring and evaluation training on Wednesday in Abuja.

Mr Umakhihe identified the ICT4D component of IFAD projects as an important part of the present government agenda of transforming the agricultural sector.

He emphasised that agriculture had to be diversified through technology, adding that without technology, the nation could achieve much in food production, considering the numerous challenges bedevilling the sector.

Mr Umakhihe said the country could scale up agricultural production and assist smallholder farmers through technology adoption since they were the critical stakeholders in the ministry. He said the ministry would borrow a leaf from the innovation.

He said IFAD ICT4D was in line with the federal government’s agricultural value chain transformation agenda.

Dede Ekoue, IFAD Nigeria country director, said the essence of the training was to use the power of digital solutions to improve the monitoring and evaluation of our project to yield the best results.

Ms Ekoue said the government and IFAD were investing heavily in projects to boost agricultural production and improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers, adding that these projects must yield the best results.

She identified ICT4D as the key to scaling up results for farmers.

According to her, there is a need to use digital tools to track the results, to track whether the result is in line with the objectives, to ensure that these results are efficient, and to learn from these results to improve the project.

Ms Ekoue added that the M and E system was to know whether the investments provided by a local government in terms of inputs such as fertiliser were helping to increase production in the farms supported by the organisation and government.

She said the training provided participants with knowledge of the current state of ICT4D in agriculture, including access to and application of tools and technologies for transforming rural agriculture.

Ms Ekoue said it was also to ascertain how various stakeholders in a digital agricultural ecosystem project could best meet their specific objectives using the concepts of interoperability as an overall framework and guide.

(NAN)