FAO rolls out E-Registry for emergency preparedness and response to food crises
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in South Sudan has successfully rolled out a Farmers' E-Registry to enhance digital transformation in agriculture.
Through the project Leveraging Digital Systems for Emergency Preparedness and Response to Food Crisis (EmergenSys), funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), FAO aims to improve emergency preparedness and response using digital tools and Early Warning and Anticipatory Action (EW-EA).
FAO South Sudan’s Senior Programme Officer, Felix Dzvurumi, emphasized the importance of EW-EA in mitigating crises. “The Farmers’ E-Registry and weather advisory services represent significant advancements that improve service delivery and enable more efficient resource allocation for farmers”, he noted.
The Undersecretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS), Prof. Mathew Gordon Udo, officially opened the workshop, stressing the need for digital transformation in agriculture, particularly through the upcoming Cooperatives E-Registry rollout.
“Building the capacity of key government institutions and key stakeholders in the use, operation, and maintenance of Farmers E-Registry, extension advisory, and e-voucher systems is vital for the efficiency of the technology”.
So far, 20 government staff and extension officers have been trained to register farmers to the Farmers' E-Registry. This includes using the farmers' registration mobile app to capture farmer details and upload them to the server for further processing.
With the technical skills provided to the government and extension officers, 7 000 farmers have registered using the Farmers’ E-registry system, which enables them to access services such as inputs through the voucher management module and extension services.