Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
10
Figure 2: Integration of Agricultural Statistics
Source: Kasnakoglu, 2005.
1.4 New Challenges in Agricultural Statistics
There appears to be relatively little demand for agricultural statistics, which can be
ascertained from the following observations: what is produced is not what is demanded; there
is a long time lag between dissemination and the measured event; statistics are driven by
donors rather than the need; there is a lack of rich data points to feed new advances in
statistics and econometrics; and finally, agricultural policymakers are not interested in
agricultural statistics.
On the supply side, there are good amounts of statistics in traditional domains like production
and yields on the output side, and land, labor, fertilizers and tractors on the input side. Yet
much more data needs to be compiled in other areas such as prices, margins, costs, incomes, to
name a few. One of the problems with agricultural statistics has been the concentration on the
supply side and the producer, while neglecting the demand side and the consumer. The shift in
emphasis from agriculture to rural statistics, as opposed to the other alternative routes, may
unfortunately lead to the continuation of this long-standing problem.
Much remains to be done in the area of agricultural statistics, both at the national and
international levels, since the problems and issues to be addressed are changing and there is a