Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
53
Figure 8: Cumulative Effects of the Six Dimensions of IAS
Source: Table 36.
c. Extension of the IASD to all COMCEC Member Countries
The IASD is calculated and analyzed as above for only 36 COMCEC Member Countries who
responded to the questionnaires or whose questionnaires were completed by UDA experts.
This section attempts to extend the Index to a larger number of COMCEC Members, using the
information available in the literature and some of the analysis performed in the earlier
chapters. First, however, it is necessary to raise the following cautions:
 Different studies in the literature used different indicators and employed different
scorings and/or weights.
 Different studies were carried out for different years and groups of countries.
 Even the same studies repeated overtime for the same group of countries showed
differing results.
 Nevertheless, there is a moderately high correlation between the results of different
dimensions and studies, although there is no match in absolute numbers or ranks.
Therefore, this task is carried out by putting together the findings of different assessments, not
at the index level but at the level of country groupings. An attempt will hence be made to
generalize the results of the previous section to a larger number of COMCEC countries, which
will be grouped under four categories. These groups will reflect the levels of development in
agricultural statistics, as follows: