Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
129
 The collection, processing and dissemination of agricultural statistics;
 Statistical analysis of the evolution of the agricultural sector ;
 Monitoring statistics on production , farms and agricultural markets ;
 Centralization, publication and dissemination of statistical information on the
agricultural sector, in conjunction with governments and agencies.
The Regional Services Surveys and Agricultural Statistics and Sections Departmental Statistics
provide over shares of the Department of Investigation and Agricultural Statistics (DESA)
respectively at Regions and Departments.
Presidential Decree No. 79/184 of 17 May 1979 on the reorganization of the Ministry of
Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries indicates the provisions governing the production
of statistics. The organic law of the Ministry states that each technical direction must collect
administrative statistics related to its own activities and send them by following the Unit of
Investigation and Statistics (CES) of the Division of Studies, Statistics and Cooperation. The
latter is responsible for compiling and transmitting the data cell for publication.
Decree No. 2005/099 of 06 April 2005 on the organization of the Ministry of Forestry and
Wildlife creates a Directorate for the Promotion and Transformation of Forest Products, whose
duties include the centralization of statistics on the processing and the export of timber and
non-timber forest products, in conjunction with the Department of Forests. Regarding food
statistics, Sub-Directorate for the Promotion and Transformation of Non Timber Forest
Products is responsible for the centralization of statistics related to the processing and export
of non-timber forest products.130
Institutional Set Up: The National Statistical System of Cameroon is considered as a
decentralized system with the National Statistics Committee (NSC) being the main advisory
body. The National Institute of Statistics, headed by the Ministry of Economic Planning and
Regional Development, struggles to coordinate most statistical activities and is in charge of the
management of all official statistics collected in Cameroon. The overall coordinating agencies
of the system of statistics in Cameroon have adopted a National Strategy for the Development
of Statistics with a five-year plan covering the period 2009-2013.131 A number of structures are
involved in the production of agricultural statistics with no coordinating mechanism. Efforts
are needed to integrate and better organize the activities of these structures. Only three of the
many agencies involved in the production of agricultural statistics in Cameroon have a
relatively organized statistical dispositive: the NIS, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (MINADER) and the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries
(MINEPIA). The production of agricultural statistics data is embryonic elsewhere. Globally,
there is no national strategy for agricultural statistic, but isolated programs to improve the
quality of statistics produced in some ministries.
Most of the statistical production in the rural sector is carried out in three departments:
 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER)
 Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries (MINEPIA)
130 INS, 2007a; INS, 2007b; INS 2008.
131 INS, 2008 and INS 2014b.