Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
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 The Community Information System (CIS) to collect information on the current levels
of productivity, food stocks, cultivated areas and outputs and to establish a rural
reporting system.
 The Permanent Agricultural Statistical System (PASS).
 The Agricultural Information System (AIS).
In addition, the various sub-sector departments and independent bodies collect different sets
of data based on obligations, planned/routine activities and own institutional needs subject to
availability of resources, response to pests and disease outbreak and their seriousness
(epidemics) and demand from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry & Fisheries
(MAAIF) as major users (for the case of independent bodies) and from clients such as the
World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bank of Uganda (BOU) and The Ministry of
Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED).
The Legal Framework: The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) was established as part of an
Act of Parliament in 1998 as a semi-autonomous body to coordinate and supervise the
National Statistical System (NSS).
However, the UBOS Act does not adequately allow UBOS to perform its supervisory and
coordination role, partly for the following reasons.76
 Other players in the NSS have legal frameworks from which they derive their
mandates. The current UBOS Act does not explicitly state which Act overrides the
other regarding statistical production in Ministries, Departments, Agencies and local
governments.
 The UBOS Act is indeed an Act for UBOS and not for the entire NSS. Although the NSS is
referred to in the Act, the role of lead agencies has not been clearly defined to ensure
compliance.
 The Act does not contain articles that provide details of the full picture of the
institutional arrangements and a provision for coordination and cooperation within
the NSS.
“The Uganda Bureau of Statistics Act” makes UBOS the lead and coordinating agency for all
data collection activities in the country and therefore it is involved in agricultural statistics
data collection. The organizational structure of UBOS was reviewed in 2011 and among other
notable changes the Agricultural Statistics that was formerly under the Directorate of Business
and Industrial Statistics is now a fully-fledged Directorate of Agricultural and Environmental
Statistics.
Institutional Set Up: Many institutions play significant roles in the agricultural statistical
system of Uganda. Before the decentralization policy and reform that involved the devolution
of planning and administrative functions away from the centre to the various districts, the
Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry & Fisheries (MAAIF) had an extension staff that
collected agricultural statistics from the lower administrative units for consolidation by the
76 UBOS, 2014b.