In a bid to boost farmers’ productivity and drive agricultural digitalisation, the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has partnered Microsoft- a global tech giant in the deployment of its Azure FarmBeats platform in the country.
The Azure FarmBeats is a purpose-built agricultural cloud platform that enables the aggregation of agricultural data and generation of actionable insights into farm health and conditions, soil moisture, crop layout, and farm population by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud technology.
NIRSAL has turned to Microsoft Azure FarmBeats as the perfect platform to enable comprehensive farm monitoring which is critical to the institution’s Credit Risk Guarantee (CRG) to financiers and investors to minimise the risks associated with agriculture and agribusiness financing, it says in a statement.
“We are certain that Azure FarmBeats will be the tool that will help us to analyse the data being produced from farms and all the possible ways we can use it to stabilise the agricultural value chains,” Aliyu Abdulhameed, managing director and CEO, NIRSAL said while commenting on the collaboration.
“Also, boost the confidence of investors to eliminate barriers to the free flow of finance and investments into agribusiness in Nigeria,” Abduhameed said.
He said agriculture is the foundation of the country’s economy as it remains the major source of livelihood for most Nigerians.
He added that the sustainability and growth of the sector is crucial for national development.
Also speaking at the signing ceremony, Akin Banuso, country manager, Microsoft Nigeria Limited, said his organisation is excited to be working with NIRSAL to promote precision agriculture in the country.
He stated that the technology will leverage both experience and field structure created by NIRSAL to transform the agric sector, adding that FarmBeats will drive innovation in the sector.
NIRSAL has continued to de-risk Nigeria’s agribusiness finance value chains, fix the gaps and build long term capacity and institutionalised incentives for agric lending through its five strategic pillars.
