Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region

statistics usually refer to the agricultural statistics department of TurkStat and GIS department

of MFAL. The resources allocated to agricultural statistics also show substantial variations

over the years, depending on the calendar of large scale surveys and censuses.

Human Resources:

Total number of staff of TurkStat in 2012 was 3,498. There is a specialized

department called Agricultural Statistics at the TurkStat headquarters. Under this department,

there are two groups with 38 professsional staff assigned to produce the agricultural statistics

of the Agricultural Statistics Department of TurkStat. 269 professsional staff also works for the

Agricultural Statistics teams in 26 Regional TurkStat Offices.

Currently, 18 staffs are appointed at the GIS Department of MFAL, of which 9 are responsible

for statistics, and approximately 1,500 MFAL staffs at the MFAL’s local offices (940 local offices

in Turkey) are involved in agricultural data collection in addition to other tasks assigned to

them.

The capacity of human resources in these two institutions is not sufficient for the large task of

collecting agricultural data. Specifically, in order to integrate all types of agricultural surveys in

the context of EU harmonization and regulations, TurkStat needs to recruit more staff.

Financial Resources:

The TurkStat budget for 2012 was around 90 million USD. The

Agricultural Statistics Department’s budget is estimated to be around 1.7 million USD.

Physical Resources:

TurkStat, both at central and regional levels, has sufficient IT equipment

(computers, laptops, tablets, statistical software, internet connections, etc) to facilitate all its

statistical operations. TurkStat occupies 28 buildings, of which 15 buildings are owned and the

remaining 13 are rented. It owns 17 cars and rented 106 additional cars in 2012. The total

number of computers available in TurkStat is 3,562, with an additional 3,553 laptops and

tablets, and 110 internet servers, 690 scanners, 36 video conference systems, 80 projectors,

1,885 telephones and 124 fax machines.

Similarly, at both central and regional levels, MFAL has sufficient IT resources (PC, laptop,

tablet, statistical software, internet connections, etc).

iv. Methodology Used in Agricultural Statistics

Sampling Frameworks:

TurkStat uses various sampling methods for the different surveys it

conducts. These are listed below:

The 2001

Census of Agriculture:

To date, seven agricultural censuses were conducted in

Turkey in the years 1927, 1950, 1963, 1970, 1980, 1991 and 2001. In these censuses, FAO

recommendations were followed and core parameters were collected. These core parameters

were:

TurkStat, 2014b.

SSAQ Results and TurkStat, 2014b.

Ibid

TurkStat,2014b.

TurkStat,2014a.

The last Census of Agriculture was conducted in 2001