Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
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 Organize statistical work between the various organs and associations, and specify
methods of cooperation in order for the statistical information to be used internally
and externally.
CBS also gathers trade data on agricultural products for the calculation of national accounts.
However, the responsibility of agricultural surveys, statistics on agricultural production,
producer prices and costs of production, monitoring of agricultural support, GIS and the
management of sample frames are under responsibility of DAE of MoAI.
Integration and Coordination of Agricultural Statistics: Coordination of the compilation
and dissemination of agricultural statistics between the two main actors, DAE of MoAI and
CBS, is not regular, rather dependent on specific circumstances and significant statistical
operations, such as the general surveys of agriculture and training workshops and data
compilation. Officials from the various governmental bodies are aware of the importance of
CBS as the main provider of statistics to all other national institutions. Other institutions also
support the idea of strengthening CBS’s leading role.104
Unfortunately, all actors that play important roles in collecting food and agricultural statistics
lack human resources. So, instead of collecting primary information, they are dependent on
collating administrative data that had been collected by donor projects and other national
agricultural institutions. Beside the lack of staff in the MoAI, there is also a deficiency in
technical knowledge on data collection, processing and analysis, which hinders the
development projects, considering engaging in the know-how of these first steps is crucial to
the process. Statistical surveys have usually been conducted in collaboration with donor and
humanitarian organizations: these are currently with UNDP and UNFPA (United Nations
Population Fund).
ii. Main Outputs of the Agricultural Statistics System
The ASU/DEA of MoAI is currently one of the most important departments of the MoAI as it
receives all the agricultural information from other departments, in particular from the policy
and planning departments and the CBS. The MoAI has been very active in providing
calculations for the National Accounts and is always in continuous collaboration with the CBS.
However, while providing calculations for the national accounts, agricultural trade statistics on
forestry, fisheries and other land use activities have been missed. The main reasons that data
on forestry, and medicinal plants and spices were not collected are:
 The difficulty in identifying the markets for these forest-based products, since
marketing transactions occur anywhere and anytime at the borders;
 The communal use of naturally grown shrubs/trees with unknown relations to
production; and
 A poorly equipped forestry department, which is concerned with managing the
national forests.
104 CBS, 2014c and CBS, 2014e.