Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
78
Administrative Sources: The ESD of CSO is responsible for collecting, processing and
disseminating the economic statistics in Afghanistan. It collects prices on a monthly basis of 4
main cereals (durum wheat, rice, barley and maize) and vegetables and fruits (beans, peas,
chickpeas and lentils, almonds, apricots and figs) in rural areas. Monthly bulletins are then
produced on these statistics, can be found as newsletters the CSO’s website.52
The Ministry of Commerce, does not use the CSO’s statistics, and has started to collect its own
through a chamber room and from sources other than CSO and MAIL. The Ministry of
Commerce even creates new agricultural statistics using the data from these different
sources.53
vi. Dissemination of Agricultural Statistics
The dissemination of agricultural statistics is essentially in hardcopy. The electronic medium is
rarely used but efforts are underway for further development.
The Ministry has a Monitoring Information System (MIS) with a SQL and ASP.net platform for
the storage, maintenance and dissemination of data information.54 It uses basic computers for
storing data electronically and hardcopies are also archived. Agricultural data that has been
collected processed and analyzed by the Ministry on cultivated land, crops production, fruit
and vegetable land areas, wheat production and cultivation and livestock are disseminated
through publications when they are made available. This usually occurs on a quarterly basis;
and uploaded on its website, and made public on the media and through MIS.
vii. SWOT Analysis and Needs Assessment for Agricultural Statistics in
Afghanistan
The SWOT analysis was conducted through a meeting within a small group of senior officials
from CSO, MAIL. The agricultural expert at the Kabul University coached the group in assessing
the current situation in the context of agricultural statistics and the subsequent SWOT of the
Afghanistan National Statistics system. A summary of this focus group discussion is
summarised in the SWOT Table 49 below.
52 MAIL, 2014; CSO, 2014b; CSO, 2014b.
53 MOCI, 2014.
54 MAIL, 2014.