Ethiopia plans to register up to four million farmers in a national digital database by 2028, seeking to expand access to finance, insurance, markets and agricultural services.
The Farmers Profile Registration initiative, launched about a year ago, has enrolled nearly one million farmers. The Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) expects to reach the one-million milestone by December 2026, out of an estimated 20 million farmers nationwide.
Girum Ketema (PhD), ATI’s director of digital agriculture and finance, told Capital that the initiative forms part of Ethiopia’s Digital Agriculture Roadmap, which seeks to integrate technology into activities ranging from production planning to marketing.
Registration is underway in 385 districts across seven regions, including Oromia, Amhara and the four southern regions. Preparations are being made to extend the programme to Benishangul-Gumuz and Somali regions, while registration of pastoralist communities has yet to begin.
The programme aims to create a comprehensive profile for each farmer, covering demographic information, land conditions, production activities and economic circumstances. Girum said the information would help service providers assess farmers’ resources and needs.
A central objective is to reduce the information gaps that discourage financial institutions from serving rural communities.
Girum said collecting reliable information about individual farmers is costly, making it difficult for lenders to assess borrowers and manage risk.
The database would allow banks and other financial institutions to review information such as land size, soil quality and crops produced when considering loan applications.
Farmers would retain ownership of their personal information, he said, and their consent would be required before relevant data could be shared with a financial institution.
A farmer applying for a loan, for example, would authorise the release of the information needed by the lender.
The system is also intended to connect farmers with insurance providers and markets, while improving access to timely information on prices, production conditions and emerging agricultural problems.
ATI is using two approaches to register farmers.
One links farmer registration with the national digital identification system, Fayda. Farmers without national identification numbers are brought to designated centres, where national ID officials help them enrol before their agricultural profiles are created.
The second approach uses contracted data collection agencies. ATI is also working through regional agriculture bureaus and land administration structures to expand registration.
Girum said farmers should need to register only once, with their profiles supporting access to multiple services rather than requiring different institutions to collect the same information repeatedly.
The broader digital agriculture programme, scheduled for implementation between 2025 and 2032, also includes efforts to strengthen digital literacy and provide information through digital kiosks at agricultural training centres.
Girum said previous digital agriculture initiatives had frequently remained at the pilot stage, limiting their reach and sustainability.
The current roadmap seeks to establish an inclusive, interoperable system—one that allows different platforms and institutions to work together and exchange relevant information.
Although development partners support much of the current work, ATI intends to increase reliance on domestic resources over time. Girum compared investment in digital agricultural infrastructure with the development of roads and electricity networks.
He said the government could eventually charge institutions a service fee to access organised farmer data, subject to farmers’ consent, helping finance the system’s maintenance.
However, he does not expect such charges to be introduced within the next three years.
The immediate priority, he said, is to expand registration and establish a foundation through which farmers can access a wider range of services.
