FAO prepares action plan for agric statistics assessment in Nigeria, 6 other African

The FAO on Tuesday said an action plan had been prepared for Nigeria and six other African countries to undertake the assessment of agricultural statistics in their countries.

This is contained in a statement issued by FAO, a UN body, in Accra and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) online in Abuja.

The statement listed other African countries to undertake the assessment to include Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania and Uganda. According to the statement, an action plan has also been prepared for the countries toward the implementation of agricultural statistics at each country’s level. The statement said that FAO had supported the initiative through a regional project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The statement emphasised the need for African nations to have reliable national statistics.

According to the statement, improving the quality and quantity of data availability, especially agricultural statistics, has important policy implications for African countries.

It had implications for African states striving to develop effective national and international frameworks on agriculture and food security in the region, the statement said.

The statement said that the issue had become a priority as a number of statistical experts meet for a regional validation workshop under the theme “Assessment of Anchor Country Agricultural Statistic Systems” in Accra. The statement quoted Dr Lamourdia Thiombiano, FAO Deputy Representative in Africa as saying: “FAO Regional Office for Africa has continued working closely with FAO member countries.

“To support and develop the capacity in food, agriculture and rural sector statistical data collection, analysis and dissemination. Without exception to Africa, we need accurate, reliable and quality agricultural and rural statistics to give us an idea of what is happening on the ground for country level assessment,” Thimobiano was quoted as saying at the opening of the workshop.

The statement further said that the workshop was aimed at updating the progress made in the implementation of the Global Strategy and the Africa action plan. It was also aimed at reviewing, discussing and sharing experiences among the seven countries and institutions working on the countries’ assessment and to draw main findings on good practices and challenges.

“Each participating country was requested to assess the availability and quality of the agricultural and rural statistics, the user’s needs and the data gap. The institutional, organisational, managerial and technical constraints to produce agricultural statistics have been assessed and the country’s priorities have been identified. Then achievable short-term action plans have been formulated to improve the situation in each country. The assessment report and the action plan have been validated in a participatory manner through the organisation of national workshop,’’ it added.

 (NAN)