The Cross River State Government has announced plans to register about 17,000 cocoa, oil palm, and coffee farmers under a new State Traceability System aimed at improving agricultural monitoring and market access.
The initiative was disclosed during a stakeholders’ engagement on the implementation of the Cross River State Traceability System held in Calabar.
Commissioner for Agriculture, Johnson Ebokpo, said the registration exercise will cover farmers across the state and will focus on capturing detailed data about farms and production locations.
According to him, the system will help government build a reliable agricultural database while strengthening the state’s position in global agricultural markets.
“Our objective is to establish credible technology that captures farmland data, integrates geolocation mapping, strengthens aggregation structures, and positions Cross River farmers competitively,” Ebokpo said.
He explained that the traceability system will document farm boundaries and production information to ensure better transparency within the agricultural value chain.
The commissioner noted that the initiative is also connected to evolving global agricultural standards, particularly the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which requires certain commodities entering the EU market to meet strict environmental compliance.
Ebokpo added that technical support for the project is being provided by Pula Advisors, the lead consultants for the programme.
Dr. Adewole Bello, Country Field Team Lead of Pula Advisors, said the data collection will cover farmers in all 17 local government areas of Cross River State.
“We will collect EUDR and traceability compliance data on 17,000 farmers in 17 local government areas across the state,” Bello stated.
He explained that the system will ensure that exported commodities are traceable to specific farm locations and production records.
