Designing a farmers’ registry for colombia: technical blueprint

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Agriculture remains a vital pillar of Colombia’s economy, accounting for approximately 8.7% of GDP and providing livelihoods for more than 14% of the national labor force (World Bank, 2023). The sector is marked by structural dualism: while a small number of commercial producers participate in formal markets, the majority of agricultural output comes from smallholder and family farmers who face significant barriers to accessing government programs, technical assistance, and markets. Informality, limited access to productive services, and low digital visibility constrain the sector’s productivity and resilience.
Recognizing these challenges, the Government of Colombia (GoC) has placed increasing emphasis on digital transformation as a strategic enabler for rural development, institutional modernization, and for climate adaptation. Recent sectoral strategies and the National Development Plan prioritize data governance, farmer identification, and interoperable digital systems as critical building blocks for service delivery. Initiatives such as Mi Registro Rural, a digital platform launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) to register rural producers and link them with government services, and the Servicio Público de Extensión Agropecuaria (SPEA), a national framework for organizing agricultural extension services, represent important advances toward this goal.
Modernizing the farmer registration system is now recognized as a critical entry point for improving the targeting, delivery, and monitoring of agricultural programs and services. A well-functioning Farmers’ Registry would enable the government to better reach smallholder and family farmers with tailored support, align policy and investments with actual farming realities, and facilitate inclusion of traditionally underserved groups—such as women, youth, and indigenous communities. Furthermore, as Colombia accelerates its commitments under national development and climate agendas, registry systems will play a pivotal role in enabling the tracking of results, unlocking performance-based financing, and scaling up climate-smart agriculture.
However, gaps in coherence, data coverage, and system interoperability remain. Current efforts still fall short of establishing a unified, verifiable, and inclusive registry of farmers that can enable effective policy targeting, performance monitoring, and service integration. Overlapping mandates, outdated records, and the absence of common data standards across institutions further limit the functionality and scalability of existing platforms.
To support the GoC’s strategic objective of building a more coherent, inclusive, and data-driven agricultural system, the World Bank’s Agriculture and Food Global Practice (AGF GP), through the Korea–World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF), is financing the development of a high-quality knowledge product. This activity is part of the Programmatic Advisory Services and Analytics (PASA) series, Sustainable and Inclusive Agri-food System Transformation (SIAT; P509672). Rather than deliver a pre-defined technical solution, the assignment aims to generate a diagnostic and conceptual roadmap that will help Colombia define its own path toward an integrated, interoperable, and sustainable Farmers’ Registry—grounded in national priorities and informed by global experience.