Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
98
Other Data Sources Including Administrative: Food and Agricultural Statistics production
in Uganda dates back many years to the British administration during which the Ministry
responsible for agriculture established an Agricultural Reporting System (ARS). In the ARS; the
District Agricultural Officers (DAOs) collected and provided estimates of planted area, yield
and production; the District Veterinary Officers (DVOs) collected and provided data on
livestock numbers and products; and the District Fisheries Officers (DFOs) collected and
provided data on fisheries.
Other data producers have been the parastatal bodies for traditional cash crops like coffee,
cotton, tobacco and tea. In addition, the following agencies were among the agricultural
statistics system data producers: Bank of Uganda, Uganda Commercial Bank, Uganda Revenue
Authority, the Customs Department, and other international organizations. The ARS in the
MAAIF was the main source of food and agricultural statistics, and the shortcomings of the
system were notwithstanding.
vi. Dissemination of Agricultural Statistics
Dissemination of agricultural statistics is essentially in hardcopy. The electronic medium is
rarely used but efforts are underway to develop them. There are several websites for
dissemination of agricultural statistics with modest access to agricultural statistics, with
limited functionalities and online database capabilities. These websites are listed in Annex 5.
vii. SWOT Analysis and Needs Assessment for Agricultural Statistics in Uganda
Table 57: SWOT Analysis and Needs Assessment for Uganda
STRENGTHS
 Existence of legal and institutional
infrastructure for statistics
 Availability of a Plan for National Statistics
Development (PNSD) and Agricultural Sector
Strategic Plan for Statistics (ASSPS)
 A decentralized statistical system led by UBOS
 Awareness of international norms and
classifications
 Use of international methodologies,
definitions and classifications high quality
human resources
 Policy analysis driven plans for production of
agricultural statistics
 Good documentation of conducted censuses
 International Trade data
 Communication Channels with FAO and UN
 Easy grasp of international methodologies,
norms and classifications because of the
official language being in English
 Participation at international statistical
initiatives
WEAKNESSES
 Unclear role of UBOS and MAAIF in the collection of
agricultural statistics
 Absence of the Agricultural Holding Register
 Departmental based, not harmonized data
 No database
 Low quality of available data
 No appropriate methodologies for estimations
 Mostly hardcopy, limited electronic dissemination
 Limited coordination of data producers, users and
suppliers
 Low capacity in data analysis due to lack of statistical
software
 Non-availability of micro-data and metadata and
documentation
 No data exists at the sub-national level
 Not proper statistical units in other relevant
ministries and agencies
 Dissemination system exits for internal not for
external use
 No methodologies for enhancing collection of
Fisheries and Forestry Statistics
 Missing domains (prices, food consumption statistics,
machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, investment, labor,
markets, utilization, greenhouse, irrigation)
 No common standards among relevant agencies