The Taraba State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES) has launched a major step toward digitalizing rural livestock data collection by training livestock extension and divisional livestock officers on the use of the KoboCollect tool.
The one-day capacity-building session held in Jalingo brought together livestock officers from all 16 local government councils in the state.
The training, according to the organizers, is aimed at enhancing data-driven interventions to support livestock farmers, particularly those in rural communities.
Addressing participants, the state Project Coordinator of L-PRES, Mr. Hananiah Albert, represented by the state Animal Health Officer, Dr. Bunsheya Daudu said the project’s core objective is to improve productivity, commercialization, and resilience within key livestock value chains.
He explained that each participating state under the World Bank-supported initiative is required to identify three livestock value chains based on its comparative advantage.
Taraba State has chosen cattle, sheep/goats, and poultry.
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Dr. Daudu emphasized that the KoboCollect digital tool will enable field officers to gather real-time, location-specific data on farmers, which will be transmitted directly to the World Bank system, minimizing the risk of data manipulation.
“If an officer is not at the designated location, the platform will automatically detect and flag it,” he noted.
Leading the training, resource person Mr. Benjamin Bako said the exercise was designed to equip participants with the necessary skills to identify and monitor clusters of farmers involved in similar livestock production.
“We want to track these farmer clusters so that future interventions can be properly targeted and more effective,” he said.
Participants who spoke with our reporter described the training as timely and impactful, saying it will help improve their engagement with farmers and ensure more accurate data collection in the field.
The initiative is part of L-PRES’s broader strategy to modernize livestock farming in Taraba State and align development programs with the specific needs of farmers on the ground.
