Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
133
the production of current statistics amounted to 20 million USD for the period 2009-2013. To
date, no assessment of available resources has been made.133
iv. Methodology Used in Agricultural Statistics
Sampling Frameworks: Depending on the subject of survey, random, systematic, and
stratified sampling methods are employed. Practically at the farm level, a stratified random
sampling technique is often used. The stratums are regions. Within the selected regions, the
sub-stratums can be the crops grown. Famers are selected at their homesteads/farmstead, and
detailed information is collected on their socio-economic characteristics (sex, age, material
status, household size, level of education) of farming systems and information related to
farming experience, crop cultivated and area, sources of seeds, production constraints,
production and use, cash expenditure, family labour inputs, and marketing outlets.
Furthermore, with the assistance of local technical services of MINADER, total area is divided
into stratums within each region based on topographic maps.
The General census on Population and housing held in 2005 gave a good quality of Farm
Registers. Those Registers are available at BUCREB. Moreover, farmers are structured in GIC,
GIE and Cooperatives. Through those structures there is the existence of Farm Registers. These
ones are kept within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER).
Data Collection: Data are collected both from primary and secondary sources. For the
primary sources, structured and semi-structured questionnaires are the major instrument for
gathering the data. The primary data is obtained through experts and famers interviews used
for the interviews. However conventional method of data collection is still in force (documents
and questionnaires on hardcopy) for all surveys except for the price surveys where PDAs are
used. Data entry is provided by the regional agricultural statisticians. It is manual and is
currently performed using CSPro software by the Census Bureau of the USA. Compiled data is
transmitted on CD or USB flash memory and sometimes via internet to the Department of
Surveys and Statistics in Yaounde. The consistency check of the data entered is done through
specific applications developed by the Statistics Department, using DevInfo while the analysis
and data processing is done by SPSS. The results of different surveys are stored in Excel files.
Finally, data are put into the CountrySTAT system by a site administrator.134
Commodity Classification: Decree No. 2004/013/PM of 9 January 2004 mandates the use of
classifications of activities and products AFRISTAT Member States by economic agents of
Cameroon during the compilation of statistics by economic activity or product.
Following table (Table 73) presents a summary of the current classifications adopted in
Cameroon.
133 SSAQ Results.
134 CountrySTAT, 2014.