Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
41
and Arab groups the averages are 687 and 605 thousand Euros. In the Asian group, Turkey
reported the highest budget of 1.3 million Euros, and Tajikistan the lowest at 73 thousand
Euros. In the Arab group, Morocco reported the highest budget of 2.4 million Euros and Sudan
the minimum budget of 50 thousand Euros.
It is very difficult to make sense of these extremes as they are not all accurate, and do not make
much sense due to the significant yearly fluctuations depending on large scale census and
survey calendars. The more agricultural statistics are decentralized, the more difficult it
becomes to allocate non-specific budgets. Finally, a value judgement on the sufficiency or
insufficiency of budget allocations requires more information than the financial amounts. This
is why for the study, the budget, staff and equipment magnitudes are used in a different way in
the construction of the IASD (Table 26 and Annex 4, Table A.4.10).
Table 26: Agricultural Statistics Budget
Funding Agricultural Statistics Budget (.000 EURO)
African Group Average 1,717
Min: Benin-Togo 122
Max: Mali 6,388
Arab Group Average 608
Min: Sudan 50
Max: Morocco 2,407
Asian Group 689
Min: Tajikistan 73
Max: Turkey 1,258
COMCEC 1,039
Source: SSAQ Results.
Human resources allocated to agricultural statistics, while suffering from the same problems
as were cited regarding financial resources, show a more consistent pattern. The average
number of professional staff at the headquarters (HQ) is 21 and 128 in the field. The average
number of support staff at headquarters is 47 and 297 in the field. All groups have about the
same average number of professional staff (20-23) at headquarters. The Asian group has the
least support staff (15) at headquarters, and most (400) in the field, while the Arab group has
the maximum number of support staff (78) at headquarters, and the least in the field (123)
(Table 27 and Annex 4, Table A.4.11).
Countries show a large variation in the numbers of staff utilized for agricultural statistics.
Table 27 presents the minimum and maximum numbers of staff in different categories by
regional groupings. With respect to professional staff employed at headquarters, Cameroon
leads with 104 persons. Sudan, Kuwait and Afghanistan only have 2 professional staff each at
headquarters. Egypt leads with 774 professional staff in the field, while Afghanistan reported
none in the field. As far as support staff is concerned, Egypt leads at headquarters (300 staff)
and Nigeria in the field (1,847 staff). Uganda, Mozambique and Afghanistan have only 4
support staff at headquarters and Niger has none in the field.