The Kaduna State government is set to establish an e-library and data banks for its Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to strengthen the capacity of the staff of the ministry in the areas of planning and budgeting, monitoring, evaluation and coordination.
This is aimed at boosting food production in the state.
Project Manager of the state Ministry of Agriculture, Yakubu Gora, disclosed this on Sunday in Kaduna during the official handing over of ICT equipment presented by Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to the ministry as part of two years collaborations to built capacity of farmers and impact agricultural knowledge.
Gora, who also doubles as project manager for AGRA, said the equipment will also be used to monitor the performance of departments in the ministry, in terms of data collection and other daily activities to boost food security for medium and smallholder farmers.
He said: “We will like to see change in mindset and attitude of the staff towards office work and delivering effectively. The purpose of the project is to fill the gaps identified in areas of planning and budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, coordination.”
In his remarks, the technical assistant on coordination for Synergos on AGRA project, Muhammad Musa Sheriff, said the equipment will help increase food security for smallholder farmers, as well as improve sources of income for them.
“We also aimed to see enhance programme, system delivery and effective coordination in the ministry,” Sheriff added.
The ICT equipment presented by AGRA included; Laptops, Printers, computers and photocopiers.
Other ICT equipment received by the ministry are projectors, monitors, and routers among others.
