RAF/AFCAS/09 – 4.1
E
October 2009
Agenda Item 4
AFRICAN COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
Twenty-first Session
Accra, Ghana, 28 -31 October 2009
FAO's ACTIVITIES IN FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS RELEVANT TO
AFRICA REGION SINCE THE LAST 20th SESSION OF THE COMMISSION
INTRODUCTION
The last session of the “African Commission on Agricultural Statistics” (AFCAS) was held in December
2007 in Algiers, Algeria. Since then, the FAO Statistics Division (ESS) and other Statistics Units of FAO
have continued to work closely with FAO member states in Africa to strengthen their capacity to collect,
analyze, disseminate and use statistical data on food, agriculture and rural sector.
ACTIVITIES BY SERVICES
An important restructuring of the Economic and Social Department of FAO (where the Statistics Division
is located) is underway since 2008 which leads to changes from Service Structure to Task Team Structure
in Technical Divisions, including Statistics Division (ESS). As in the past, the support of ESS to African
countries has been channeled through headquarter teams, the Regional Office for Africa (RAF) and the
Regional Office for Near East (RNE) for North African Countries.
Methodological development
Several methodological activities were conducted by the Statistics Division, since the last AFCAS
Session.
The Division has concentrated its efforts on restoring and improving FAOSTAT system, the unique World
database on food and agriculture (http://faostat.fao.org/default.aspx ). The system is now running, but
the quality of the data relies significantly on country responses to questionnaires sent to them and the
quality of data provided. This issue will be further discussed during this Session.
The Division and RAF have produced several publications and are working on new publications:
Published
 FAO/World Bank publication on TRACKING RESULTS IN AGRICULTURE AND RURAL
DEVELOPMENT IN LESS-THAN-IDEAL CONDITIONS-A sourcebook of indicators for
monitoring and evaluation.
(http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/ess/documents/Sourcebook-Web-Version.pdf)
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FAO
publication
on
DERIVING
FOOD
SECURITY
INFORMATION
FROM
NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD BUDGET SURVEYS- Experiences, Achievements, Challenges.
(http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0430e/i0430e00.htm)
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FAO/RAF: publication on STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SYSTEMS IN
AFRICA in 2007 which was produced from the analysis of replies received from more than 40
countries of the region to the biennial survey conducted during last AFCAS Session in 2007.

FAO STATISTICAL YEARBOOK 2007-2008 provides a selection of indicators on food and
agriculture by country.
(http://www.fao.org/economic/ess/publications-studies/statistical-yearbook/fao-statistical-yearbook-20072008/en/)
Under preparation

HANDBOOK ON THE USE OF GPS/PDA FOR CROP AREA MEASUREMENT. In response to
repeated recommendations from AFCAS Sessions and following a field study conducted in some pilot
countries (Senegal, Madagascar, Niger, and Cameroon) to test the use of GPS for crop area
measurement an Expert Meeting was organized in November 2008 in Ethiopia to discuss the findings
and compare to other experiences conducted elsewhere and by other National and International
Agencies. Since the expert meeting, FAO, jointly with EU Joint Research Center, World Food
Programme and CIRAD have been working on preparing a Handbook on the use of geo-positioning
devices (GPS, PDA) for crop area measurement in agricultural statistics. A first draft of the Handbook
has been completed and the document will be published early 2010.

A HANDBOOK ON THE USE OF INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION IN AGRICULTURAL
STATISTICS is being prepared and a first draft will be completed by end of 2009 for publication in
2010.
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Methodological Review: WORLD CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE 1990 and 2000 to be published in
2010
FAO and PARIS21 are working on preparing: GUIDELINES FOR INTEGRATION OF
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS IN NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF
STATISTICS.
Field Programme
The Division has been working jointly with the Regional Statistician to respond to needs expressed by the
countries, through direct requests from Governments and in response to the recommendations adopted by
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the last 20th Commission in Algiers and subsequent regional or expert meetings. The most relevant
features of this work are summarized below.
ESS, RAF and RNE provide technical support to countries through FAO's field programmes and projects.
The main areas of support are agricultural censuses, on-going systems of agricultural statistics and
institutional strengthening, agricultural statistics for food security and early warning information systems,
as well as statistical data processing and dissemination. All projects give high priority to strengthening
technical and operational capacity of national agricultural statistics systems. The projects are usually
funded by FAO Technical Cooperation Programme Funds and Trust Funds..
The most recent activities related to field programme include:
 Formulation of agricultural statistics and census projects: Senegal, Uganda, Eritrea, Sao Tomé e
Principe.
 Preparation or implementation of agricultural censuses: Mozambique, Uganda, Burkina Faso,
Benin.
 Formulation and implementation of a support to permanent agricultural statistics system as followup to successful implementation of the census of agriculture and livestock, Niger.
 Agricultural statistics for food security and early warning information systems: Ethiopia;
 Support to preparation of Supply Utilization Accounts and Food Balance Sheets: Zanzibar
(Tanzania), Senegal, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire.
 CountrySTAT project being implemented in 17 Sub-Saharan Countries.
 Formulation of UEMOA funded CountrySTAT project for UEMOA HQs and selected member
countries of this sub-regional organization.
 Formulation of a CountrySTAT project in Algeria
Development and implementation of CountrySTAT
This project funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is operational since beginning of 2008 and
covers 17 Sub-Saharan African countries (Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda,
Zambia).
The project aims at developing CountrySTAT system in order to organize, integrate and disseminate
statistical data and metadata on food and agriculture coming from different sources. CountrySTAT
gathers and harmonizes scattered institutional statistical information so that information tables become
compatible with each other at the country level and with data at the international level.
Since the launch of the project, several capacity building and technical support activities has been
conducted at global and country level, including:
 First Consultative Meeting of the project in July 2008 in Dakar, Senegal for francophone
countries and in September 2008 in Zanzibar, Tanzania for Anglophone countries
 Basic CountrySTAT training in October 2008 in Rome, Italy
 PC-Axis Meeting in Rome, Italy in 2008
 Advanced CountrySTAT Training in October 2009 in Rome, Italy
 PC-Axis Meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania in October 2009
 Second Consultative Meeting in Accra, Ghana in October 2009
 Preparation of several methodological and training material in IT and Statistics
 Support to several national trainings and workshops
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As a result, several countries have launched or are about to launch their CountrySTAT and the project is extended until
September 2010.
The Food Security Indicators Group
ESS has continued its food security activities in the region and has now a well established Household
Survey Programme assisting countries to improve their national household income and expenditure survey
to respond to food security assessment and monitoring.
The Division has developed the Food Security Statistics Module (FSSM) for deriving a suite of food
security indicators, including the MDG hunger indicator, from the available food data collected in the
National Household Surveys (NHS). This software uses organized food data files of the NHS to produce a
large range of food security statistics at national and sub national levels useful for policy makers to better
focus their poverty alleviation programmes. Regional and country level FSSM training has been carried
out during the past years and nationals of more than 35 African countries have been trained and provided
the FSSM software. A few countries have used those results as inputs for their National Food Security
Programme (NFSP) of Food Insecurity Assessment reports (FIA). Malawi and Kenya have published their
FIA reports. The Division is still providing support to African countries having more recent NHS food
data using the updated FSSM version which has been updated with modules of food requirement and
micronutrients. The latter analysis is useful to analyze the quality food consumed in terms of
micronutrients, amino acids and proteins.
The Division has undertaken many other normative activities with direct relevance to African countries
and many of which take into account AFCAS recommendations as indicated in the annex.
Capacity Building (Workshops, Seminars, Training Sessions)
Since the last AFCAS Session, ESS has organized several technical meetings, workshops and seminars:
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A Joint FAO/Uganda Bureau of Statistics Round table meeting on the FAO World Programme
for Census of Agriculture 2010 (April 2008, Kampala, Uganda) for English speaking countries..
Training Workshop on Agricultural Statistics in Rabat, Morocco April, 2009 for countries of
North Africa and the Near East
The second Wye City Group Meeting in June 2009 in Rome with a focus on issues related to
the revision and preparation of a supplement for Non-OECD countries to the handbook Rural
Households' Livelihood and Well-being: Statistics on Rural Development and Agriculture
Household Income.
A Round table meeting on the new FAO World Programme for Census of Agriculture 2010
(November 2008, Cairo, Egypt) has been organized for North Africa and Near East countries.
Technical meeting on use of GPS for crop area measurement in agricultural surveys in Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November, 2008
International Statistical Institute (ISI) Satellite Meeting on Agricultural Statistics August 2009,
Maputo, Mozambique back-to-back with the 57th Session of the International Statistical
Institute (ISI) in Durban, from 16 to 22 August 2009. The “Maputo Meeting” gathered more
than 100 senior experts from International Organizations, National Statistical Offices and
Ministries of Agriculture to discuss the key elements of a Global Strategy to Improve
Agricultural and Rural Statistics.
Several training sessions on CountrySTAT have been organized and conducted in FAO-HQ and in
countries where related the CountrySTAT project is being implemented as indicated above.
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Global Strategy for Improving Agricultural Statistics
Since 2008, and under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, FAO has been
working with other International Agencies and Countries to develop a Global Strategy for Improving
Agricultural Statistics. The purpose of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural Statistics is to
provide a vision for national and international statistical systems to produce the basic statistical
information in support of policy and decision making, as it relates to the agricultural sector, required
for the 21st century. The immediate goals are:
 Countries will agree upon a minimum set of core agricultural data and will pledge to provide
such a minimum core data set annually to meet the current and emerging needs of policy and
decision making, markets and trade, and investment.
 Agriculture will be integrated into the national statistical systems in order to meet policy maker
and other data user expectations that the data will be comparable across countries and over
time.
 The integration will be achieved by an agreed upon conceptual framework as a foundation and
an establishment of innovative methodological systems and solutions to build the national
statistical infrastructure
The Strategy has been reviewed and discussed at several international meetings and will be submitted in
November 2009 to the FAO Conference for adoption and in February 2010 for endorsement by the United
Nations Statistical Commission..
A detailed presentation of the Global Strategy will be made during this AFCAS Session.
Partnership for Implementation of Global Strategy for Improving Agricultural Statistics in Africa
FAO is working with several partners to quick start the implementation of some aspects of the Global
Strategy for Improvement of Statistics. An informal Meeting of main Stakeholders was organized on this
subject in August 2009 in Maputo in parallel to the ISI Satellite. It was agreed that a Capacity Building
Programme could be developed for Africa, given the fact that:
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Countries in Africa Region are among those who need the most assistance to strengthen their
agricultural Statistics system
A lot of background work has already done during the last 10 years and main issues have been
identified and what needs to be done through biennial meetings of the FAO African
Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS) and several international and regional
meetings
Interest of several Partners and countries to initiate action confirmed at the informal
Stakeholders meeting in Maputo in August 2009 as side event to ISI Satellite meeting on Global
Strategy (selected countries, Regional training institutions, Regional Remote Sensing Centers,
Development Partners). Main components/sub-programmes discussed and confirmed.
A preliminary proposal is being developed for a stakeholder meeting in early 2010 in Tunis at AfDB
HQs to start the development of programme components (Technical assistance component, Training
component, Research and development component).
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FAO Capacity building strategy and programme
The FAO Statistics Division has developed a new Capacity Building Strategy and programme which
builds on the findings and recommendations of the external evaluation of FAO work in statistics as well
as other recent assessments of countries capacity in food and agricultural statistics done by FAO and
other Institutions, particularly PARIS21. The Strategy aims at addressing the deterioration over the last
decades of the capacity of many countries in agricultural statistics (particularly in Africa).
Through the Programme, to be implemented in close partnership with other Agencies and Institutions, the
FAO Statistics Division will focus its assistance to member Countries on methodologies and tools
developed and consolidated by the Division and for which it has proven expertise and comparative
advantage. The assistance will be driven by national demands and built around the Strengthening of the
Institutional coordination and capacity through the integration of Agricultural Statistics into the National
Strategies for Development of Statistics (NSDS).
FAO and AfDB are working together to implement this strategy in selected countries
A detailed presentation on this Strategy will be made during this Session
Other activities
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Data on Government Expenditures on agriculture collected from African countries for
monitoring the commitment to invest 10% of national budgets in Agriculture. FAO is closely
cooperating with New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) in this undertaking.
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The questionnaires on the State of Agricultural Statistical Systems in Africa have been sent
again to countries. Despite time constraints, about 30 country replies have been recorded.
Compiled resultants will be presented during the Session of this Commission.
ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN IN THE FIELD OF SEX-DISAGGREGATED DATA BY FAO
REGIONAL OFFICE FOR AFRICA
The FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF) continued to provide technical and financial support to
African Member Countries for enhanced collection, analysis, dissemination and use of sex-disaggregated
data reflecting gender relations prevailing in the agricultural sector. In follow-up to the recommendation
that “Member Countries intensify user-producer dialogues to facilitate the emergence of a common
understanding among data producers and users on the importance of producing gender-disaggregated
agricultural statistics”, the Organization continued to support the production of the thematic census
reports entitled Gender profile of the agricultural sector, prepared with statistical data collected by
censuses undertaken during the 2000 Round of the World Census of Agriculture. Niger followed the
Tanzania’s example of 2007 and launched its gender profile in June 2008 in two separate volumes on
covering the agricultural sub-sector and one for the sedentary livestock sub-sector. In reference to the
recommendation that FAO is “to ensure that the experience gained in Africa during the 2000 WCA in the
production of sex disaggregated agricultural data be built on during the WCA 2010”, the Organization
has finalized an electronic tool kit entitled “AGRI-GENDER DATABASE, a statistical toolkit for the
production of sex-disaggregated agricultural data” containing examples of relevant questions used in the
various census programmes implemented in Africa during the past two census rounds and the table
formats that facilitate the analysis and dissemination of data obtained. The official launching of this work
is on the agenda of this Session of the Commission. Furthermore, FAO supports the Economic
6
Commission for Africa to integrate sex-disaggregated agricultural data into the African Gender and
Development Index being developed by the latter Institution. With regard to the recommendation that
“Member Countries and FAO alike endeavour to fine-tune new complex gender sensitive concepts like
sub-holder and sub-holding” while “building data producers and users’ capacity” hereto, the
Organization recently re-engaged with relevant stakeholders in Senegal, Benin and the Food Security and
Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia to expand their experience in collecting such data.
FISHERIES STATISTICS IN AFRICA
The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Information and Statistics Service (FIES) has continued to
compile process and disseminate the FAO global databases on fishery statistics with close collaboration
with members. In addition, specifically for this region, FIES regularly updates two regional databases on
capture production corresponding to the FAO Fishing Areas “34-Eastern Central Atlantic” (from Morocco
to the Democratic Rep. of the Congo) and “47- Southeast Atlantic” (from Angola to South Africa).
In 2007, a revision of the statistical divisions for the Southeast Atlantic database was jointly proposed and
endorsed by FAO and the South East Atlantic Fisheries Organization (SEAFO), a regional fisheries
management organization which covers the high seas of the South East Atlantic Ocean. Its Convention
was signed in 2001 by Angola, Namibia, South Africa, United Kingdom (on behalf of St. Helena and its
dependencies of Tristan da Cunha and Ascension Islands) and distant water fishing countries. The revision
of the statistical divisions aims at obtaining clearly separate data between catches taken inside and outside
Economic Exclusive Zones (EEZs) of coastal states. During the last two years, the two organizations have
been collaborating in setting up the new statistical framework and exchanging the information received.
After the development of an inventory of marine resources and stocks, an inventory of national fisheries in
the Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic Fisheries (CECAF) area is currently under a validation
process, for eventual publishing as part of the web based Fishery Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS).
The same process is underway for the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) region.
FIRMS is a formal Information Partnership arrangement launched in February 2004 which currently
brings together 13 Inter-Governmental Organizations and FAO. Other similar draft inventories are
available or under development in the Benguela Current region, and in the Red Sea region.
The FAO Strategy for Improving Information on Status and Trends of Capture Fisheries” (Strategy-STF)
was adopted by the 25th Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) and endorsed by the United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2003. The Strategy–STF is a voluntary instrument that applies to
all States and entities. Its overall objective is to provide a framework for the improvement of knowledge
and understanding of fishery status and trends as a basis for fisheries policy-making and sustainable
management. The Strategy-STF will be implemented through agreements between States, directly or
through Regional Fishery Bodies (RFBs) and arrangements, and FAO. In order to assist the
implementation of the Strategy-STF, a multilateral project was formulated under the FAO FishCode
Programme, the FishCode-STF Project. The Project became operational in November 2004.
Since the last AFCAS session, activities related to fisheries statistics supported by FAO through the
FishCode STF project include:
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The holding of two sub-Regional Workshop on Improving information on Status and Trends of
captured fisheries: i) for West Central Gulf of Guinea Region in collaboration with the newly
established Fisheries Committee West Central Gulf of Guinea (Accra, Ghana from 26 to 28
June 2007), and ii) for the Gulf of Guinea in Collaboration with the Fisheries Committee for the
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Gulf of Guinea (Douala, Cameroon 15-18 April, 2008). Both workshops identified information
requirements, gaps/bottlenecks in data collection and provided recommendation for
improvement.
As follow up of the sub-regional workshop, national activities for the improvement of fisheries
data collection were formulated for Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Republic of
Congo, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo The activities are presently being
implemented.
Support to the establishment of an ad hoc working group on fisheries statistics for the Fisheries
Committee West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC).
Support to the second meeting of the Working Party on Fisheries Statistics (WPFS) of the South
West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) during 28-30 April 2008 in Mombassa,
Kenya.
Development and implementation of a training course on fisheries data collection for District
Fisheries Officers in Tanzania and Kenya.
Further support to the implementation of Big Numbers Project. The Global (Big) Numbers Project
(G(B)NP) is a joint activity of FAO and WorldFish Center and funded through PROFISH and own
contributions by the two organizations.
FAO FIES has started a new TCP Project: TCP/GUI/3204: “Support for the establishment of a fisheries
information system for artisanal marine fisheries and inland fisheries in Guinea. The primary goal is to
review and adapt the fisheries data collection system for Guinea and support the development of a
comprehensive Fisheries Information System.
Latest publications:
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FAO Yearbook, Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics, 2006 and 2007 (in press).
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2008.
4. ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN IN THE FIELD OF WATER STATISTICS IN AFRICA
The FAO Land and Water Division (NRL) manages the AQUASTAT Programme, which is FAO’s
global information system on water and agriculture (http://www.fao.org/nr/aquastat). It collects,
analyses and disseminates data and information by country and by region. Its aim is to provide users
interested in global, regional and national analyses with comprehensive information related to water
resources and agricultural water management across the world, with emphasis on countries in Africa,
Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The information system consists of:
▪ Databases: The AQUASTAT main country database, as well as databases on African dams, on
institutions, on river sediment yields, and on investment costs in irrigation;
▪ Countries and regions: Standardized text by country and by region on the state of water resources
and agricultural water use;
▪ Climate information tool: A tool to provide climate estimates for the land surface of the globe;
▪ Water resources: Review of the statistics of renewable water resources by country;
▪ Agricultural water use: Review of agricultural water use by country;
▪ Global irrigation map: Global map of irrigated areas, which is a spatial dataset on areas equipped
for irrigation;
▪ Maps and tables: A selection of downloadable maps and datasets on water and agriculture. Georeferenced AQUASTAT information is also available on GeoNetwork;
▪ Publications: AQUASTAT publications related to water and agriculture.
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AQUASTAT is responsible for the MDG Water Indicator 7.5, which is equal to the proportion of
renewable water resources withdrawn.
On average every 5-10 years country and regional information is updated through a detailed
questionnaire. The update is done by continent or region. In 2005 the countries of the African continent
were updated, resulting in FAO’s Water Report 29 “Irrigation in Africa in figures: AQUASTAT survey
2005” (in English and French) and in 2008 the countries of the Middle East Region were updated,
resulting in FAO Water Report 34 “Irrigation in the Middle East region in figures: AQUASTAT survey
2008” (in English and Arabic). Update of the remaining countries of the Asian continent is ongoing and
updating of Latin America countries is about to start.
The online country database contains about 100 items, related to: population and geography; climate
and water resources; water use; irrigation and drainage development; and environment and health
(http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/data/query/index.html).
AQUASTAT collaborates with FAOSTAT on the one water-related item available in FAOSTAT,
which is the “Area equipped for irrigation” to ensure consistency. AQUASTAT has been involved in
the preparation of the questionnaire for the World Census on Agriculture 2010 and Theme 3
“Irrigation and water management” follows the AQUASTAT structure and definitions. AQUASTAT
has participated in the WCA 2010 preparatory workshops for English speaking African countries in
Kampala in April 2008 and for the Near East countries in Cairo in November 2008.
AQUASTAT contributes to and is a major data provider for international flagship publications, such
as FAO’s global perspective studies “Agriculture towards 2015/30” and “Agriculture towards
2030/50”, the 3-yearly “World Water Development Report” (2003, 2006, 2009), and the publication
“Water for food, water for life: a comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture”
(2007). It plays a key role in the development of the UN-Water federated water monitoring system.
It collaborates with UNSD on standardization and harmonization of water-related data and definitions,
and with the Global Water Systems Project (GWSP) on the preparation of a global map of dams and
reservoirs.
AQUASTAT concentrates on capacity building through projects such as, amongst others, the Italian-funded project
“Strengthening national water monitoring capacities with emphasis on agricultural water management” in Benin and Ethiopia,
the EC-funded project “Somalia land and water information management (SWALIM)”, the Spanish-funded project “Capacity
development on the integration of gender analysis in water and land tenure management” on gender-disaggregated data in
Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Timor-Leste. It organizes and participates in workshops on understanding and
improving the methodologies used for the estimation of water resources and use, in collaboration with regional economic
organizations (ECOWAS, ECLAC, ESCAP, etc.). It collaborates with different universities and research institutions on the
improvement of data, such as with the University of Frankfurt and the University of Bonn on the improvement of national and
sub-national irrigation data, and CAWTAR (Center of the Arab Women for the Training and Research) on the improvement of
the collection, analysis and dissemination of gender disaggregated data in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
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ANNEX
LIST OF MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE 20th SESSION OF AFCAS AND
THEIR STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION
RECOMMENDATIONS
STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION
The pursuance by countries of previous efforts done for the
improvement of the statistical systems for food and
agriculture and to generate useful indicators for the users
(like those related to food insecurity and the monitoring of
MDGs);
Several countries are making efforts to
improve their national systems of food and
agriculture with FAO support as indicated
in the field programme
FAO to maintain its support to African countries for the
establishment and enhancement of appropriated and
renovated food and agricultural statistical systems;
FAO has been leading the preparation of a
Global Strategy for Improving Agricultural
Statistics and providing support to countries
through field projects, trainings and
workshops, guidelines and manuals
FAO through the Wye City Group (second
meeting in Rome in June 2009) is working
with Partners on the preparation of a.
Supplement to the handbook with focus on
non-OECD countries, including African
countries
- FAO has supported the production of the
first thematic census reports entitled Gender
profile of the agricultural sector, prepared
with statistical data collected by censuses
undertaken during the 2000 Round of the
World Census of Agriculture.
- FAO has started developing an electronic
tool kit containing examples of relevant
questions used in the various census
programmes implemented in Africa during
the past round and the table formats that
facilitate the analysis and dissemination of
data obtained.
FAO to maintain its activities with other partners in order to
adapt to the African context of the methodologies and
concepts used in the international manual on Statistics on
Rural Development and Agriculture Household Income and
wished that the manual be translated in French
(as the present version is only in English);
FAO to assist member countries in the enhancement of their
capacities in the use of new statistical concepts and
appropriate tools for gathering and analysis of sex
disaggregated data in view
of gender issues;
Give more time to countries for the completion of the
questionnaire on the state of food and agricultural statistical
systems in Africa; this would increase the response rate and
also allow
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- FAO has recently re-engaged with relevant
stakeholders in Senegal to expand their
experience in collecting such data and is on
stand-by for other Member Countries
preparing their census under the WCA2010.
(Notably Benin, Burkina Faso, Mozambique
and Tanzania).
The application of this recommendation
lead to a significant increase in the number
of responses (more than 40 countries) and a
detailed publication was produced by RAF
those who have not responded yet exhaustively to review
non response cases and provide the information (this will
also allow for the correction of eventual incoherencies
observed into some questionnaires already filled and sent);
to include in the next version of the “questionnaire”
qualitative questions to enable appreciate certain replies
better; once all the required information have been dealt
with, to elaborate on a global report and a kind of pamphlet
which could be used by countries as an advocacy tool for
agricultural statistics activities and to provide countries with
more detailed data and metadata issued from the
questionnaire;
Countries take reference on modular and integrated
approach, as recommended by FAO, when elaborating and
conducting their agriculture censuses;
FAO to provide their technical support to countries to
enable them perform their agricultural census in accordance
with the content of the World Programme for Census of
Agricultural 2010;
Countries to create strategies for establishing efficient links
between agricultural census and population census without
impacting on their respective quality results;
FAO to pursue its work, through close collaboration with
regional and sub regional institutions, on the way of
conducting an agricultural census in coordination with a
population census;
FAO to take appropriate measures to provide countries with
the new manual on Monitoring and Evaluation of
Agriculture and Rural Development Programmes (this
manual contains Indicators for tracking results in less-thanideal conditions);
FAO to organize, in partnership with other institutions, a
high level technical experts consultation to validate the
results of the pilot study on the use of GPS for measuring
plot areas in order to reduce the costs of surveys and make
appropriate recommendations;
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on the State of Food and Agricultural
Statistics in Africa in 2007.
Niger has successfully implemented the
modular approach and Mozambique has
adopted a similar approach and successfully
included an agricultural module into their
Population Census which contains 10 out of
16 items in the Core module of WCA2010
(complete enumeration) and serve as
sampling frame for the agricultural census..
Round Table Meetings on WCA2010 were
organized in Uganda, Egypt.
Technical support is being provided to
Census in Mozambique, Uganda, Benin,
Burkina Faso. Request for support have
been received from: Cape Verde, Ghana,
Sao Tome e Principe, Togo, Burundi,
Senegal, Morocco and Djibouti.
Burkina Faso and Mozambique have
successfully included an agricultural
module into their population census.
FAO is working closely with UN-ECA and
will make a communication at Africa forum
in November 2009 in Dakar on the linkages
between Population and Agricultural
Census.
The document has been sent to pilot
countries. The document is being translated
into French and Spanish for wider
dissemination. These versions will be
available in 2010.
In response to this recommendation, FAO
organized in November 2008 in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, a high level technical
meeting on the use of GPS for crop area
measurement in the agricultural surveys in
Africa with worldwide experts on the
subject and selected country representatives.
The outcome is a Joint handbook which will
be published early 2010
The establishment of metadata systems to provide detailed
information on techniques used for generating statistics on
prices (sampling, questionnaires, concepts, definitions) as
well as the enhancement of countries capacities, not only to
produce basic data, but also secondary statistics to increase
the coherence on prices information;
FAO has started work on agricultural prices
and further discussions on the subject are
included in the agenda of this AFCAS
Session
More collaboration and coordination between FAO and the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) for the
finalization of the Sectorial Model on agriculture with the
objective to provide countries with a valuable tool for
analysis and valorization of agricultural statistics, as a
helpful tool for decision making, notably investment
decision (this model is being elaborated by IFPRI); and this
model must be available to all member countries for their
ownership and to perform it according to their needs;
FAO and IFPRI together with University of
Minesota and Pretoria University have
continued their collaboration to valorize
agricultural statistics and provide useful
information for decision making through:
the data rescue activities ( inventory,
scanning, digitization of census and survey
data for African countries) and the
compilation and analysis of food security
and nutrition indicators.
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