NITDA partners three varsities on digital farming

To promote the Federal Government’s initiatives on digital economy, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has engaged three federal universities in the country to advance research and application of digital technology in farming to speed up actualisation of the country’s food demand.

While fielding questions from newsmen in Dutse, Jigawa state on the activities of the agency, the Director-General of NITDA, Mr. Kashifu Abdullahi, explained that plans have reached advance stage for collaboration with Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Federal University Dutse (FUD) and University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) for the pilot scheme.

“Deploying digital technology into agriculture will make farming a fanciful and attractive business for the youth, which will also culminate in providing more job opportunities and strengthen the country’s food security,” he said.

Abdullahi added that application of digitech in farming would reduce the quantity of water, fertiliser and labour required, as well as increase yield.

“With application of digital technology into farming, one hectare can yield higher than 10 hectares without similar technology,” he added.

According to him, NITDA is establishing Information Technology (IT) centres in the communities and institutions of learning across the country as well as providing training for Nigerians to operate in line with Federal Government’s policy on digital economy.

Abdullahi explained further that NITDA is committed to collaborating with all stakeholders to achieve 95 per cent digital literacy and 99 per cent broadband coverage in the country by 2030.