Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
107
vi. Dissemination of Agricultural Statistics
Dissemination of agricultural statistics is mostly in hardcopy. Depending on the responsible
agencies, various dissemination policies are adopted. There are several websites for the
dissemination of agricultural statistics with modest access to agricultural statistics, limited
functionalities and online database capabilities. These websites are listed in Annex 5. The
Statistics Information Management Division of MOA publishes, through its website, statistics
on planted area, harvested area, yield, production of crops, livestock production, fisheries
production and the number of fisherman and culturists. The dissemination is made available to
the public in paper hardcopy.98
The Agricultural GDP, annual/monthly rubber statistics, SUA, trade, consumer price index on
food items, producer price index on agriculture, labour force, agriculture census (crops,
livestock, fisheries and agriculture services), economic census (crops, livestock, fisheries and
forestry & logging) are disseminated to the public in hardcopy. Forestry statistics are produced
by the Forestry Departments only for Peninsular Malaysia, and the states of Sabah and
Sarawak. The statistics, however, are not disseminated, and there is no access to forestry
statistics in Malaysia.
Respective boards and MOPIC do disseminate commodity statistics for palm oil, rubber, cocoa,
pepper, kenaf and tobacco, for which the National Kenaf and Tobacco board is the governing
body. The methods of dissemination are through online databases and in hardcopy.99 Federal
Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) is one of the 14 agencies under the Ministry of
Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry and it disseminates the agricultural prices at the ex-farm,
wholesale and retail levels for fruits, livestock and selected crops. This information is
circulated on a weekly and monthly basis in hardcopy. The publication of agricultural statistics
does not follow a consistent and publicly-known policy of dissemination. The results of
surveys and censuses are disseminated without any methodological information. In hardcopy
publications, tables and graphics are provided, though there is no procedure for the provision
of meta-data in publications.
vii. SWOT Analysis and Needs Assessment for Agricultural Statistics in Malaysia
Table 63: SWOT Analysis and Needs Assessment for Malaysia
STRENGTHS
 Existence of legal and institutional
infrastructure for statistics
 Use of up-to-date methodology
 International norms and classifications
 Traditional domains (Production, Inputs,
Prices)
 International Trade data
 Physical infrastructure for statistics
 Good command of English
 Supply and Utilization Accounts on Agriculture
 Strong commitment of staff
WEAKNESSES
 No interactive and consolidated database
 Mostly hardcopy, limited electronic dissemination
 Lack of sampling frame
 Lack of capacity for methodology design
 Weak coordination and communication between agencies
 Lack of statisticians
 Traditional data collection methods
 Non-availability of micro-data and metadata and
documentation
 Dissemination system is set up for internal not external use
 Agricultural statistics missing an objective
 Not policy analysis driven
 Missing domains (Investment, RuralInfrastructure, Agro-
processing)
 Ineffective User Dialogue
98 MOA, 2014.
99 MOPIC, 2014.