(Item 5 of the Agenda)
(Item 5a of the Agenda)
44. Document APCAS/08/7 "Compendium of the Metadata for National Agricultural Statistics in Selected APCAS Countries: Experience and Preliminary Findings" was introduced to the Commission by Mr Hiek Som. The Commission was reminded that at its Twenty-First Session, the metadata framework was introduced by FAO. It was recognized that there was a strong need for statistical metadata, which would provide better understanding of all the data items and the way to obtain them within the national system of agricultural statistics. Sixteen member countries consisting of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam participated in the exercise.
45. The Commission was informed that a questionnaire on national agricultural statistics and an annotated outline for country reports on related metadata were provided to participating countries.
46. A country report on metadata comprised three main chapters: (a) the national system of agricultural statistics; (b) major domains and selected indicators of agricultural statistics; and (c) major data sources for agricultural statistics. The report would allow readers to view the national system of agricultural statistics holistically, covering the production base, the enabling environment, the inputs needed and the outputs.
47. The Commission was informed that several drafts of country reports were prepared to comprehensively document the information available in the countries. A review of the country reports showed that major publications produced by national agricultural statistics systems included yearbooks of agricultural statistics, quarterly indicators of agricultural performance, occasional reports on agricultural census and surveys, chapters on agricultural statistics in national statistics yearbook, publications on agricultural foreign trade, food security and early warning statistics, food balance sheets, and costs of agricultural production.
48. Common statistical domains found in the country reports were production, price, foreign trade, agricultural inputs, agricultural credit, food consumption, rural communities and infrastructure. The main data sources cited were agricultural census and crop and livestock production surveys. Other surveys reported included cost of production surveys, land use surveys, population censuses, fisheries censuses and household socio-economic surveys. The Commission noted with appreciation that methodological details for each of the data sources were described in the country reports.
49. The Commission appreciated that countries that had prepared the documentation on metadata of national agricultural statistics had realised the value of such an exercise for users and producers of statistics. The latter used such documents to identify weaknesses in the national system of agricultural statistics, thus giving an opportunity to take measures for improvement.
50. Information on financial and human resources devoted solely to agricultural statistics was difficult to obtain. The Commission recognized that the task of establishing a complete metadata framework for national agricultural statistics was a continuing process both for FAO and member countries. The Commission was pleased to note the contribution of such initiative on metadata, which had improved the countries' ability to provide useful information to FAO's Agricultural Bulletin Board on Data Collection and Quality of Statistics (ABCDQ).
51. The Commission praised member countries' positive response to the suggestion of posting country reports on their respective RDES website. The Commission congratulated the Philippines for incorporating its metadata into its CountrySTAT http://countrystat.bas.gov.ph/ under the module of "Metadata" at http://countrystat.bas.gov.ph/metadata_new.asp. Meanwhile, Nepal published its metadata report as a pamphlet.
52. The Commission recommended that member countries update their respective metadata regularly. It also recommended that updated metadata, and as needed new surveys and publications, be posted on the web for wider dissemination. The Commission further recommended that FAO include in its programme of work the global updating of the compendium of the metadata at least once in five or ten years.
(Item 5b of the Agenda)
53. Delegates from participating countries presented Document APCAS/08/8 "Recent Developments in Agricultural Statistics in the Countries of the Region (update by member countries on selected topics)". The delegates updated the Commission on the latest developments in their respective national agricultural statistical service since the last APCAS Session in 2006. The Commission noted that statistical systems widely practiced among APCAS member countries consisted of three variants - centralized, decentralized with institutionalized mechanism for coordination and decentralized without any institutionalized coordinating mechanism.
54. More than half of the member countries reported to be operating under a comprehensive statistics law which governed the development, direction and delineation of responsibilities and activities of the national statistical system. Some member countries reported that while they did not have such a comprehensive law, they operated under ad hoc orders from either the head of the state or the parliament, mandating specific statistical activities that should be undertaken by line ministries.
55. The Commission noted that while many member countries had undertaken at least one census of agriculture, some, particularly low-income countries, had yet to plan for their first agricultural census. In many developing member countries, agricultural censuses (especially the first) were carried out with support from development partners and donors. In a few countries having decentralized statistical systems, the responsibility for the agricultural census lied with the National Statistics Office. In Pakistan, a separate Agricultural Census Organisation had the sole mandate to plan and oversee agricultural census activities. A few countries reported that instead of decennial censuses, they were conducting their agricultural censuses every five years. Moreover, some reported to have conducted subject matter specific censuses like livestock censuses, censuses of agricultural machinery, fisheries censuses and village censuses. The Commission was informed that China, which had carried out its second census in 2007, was among the first countries in the region to conduct the agricultural census under the ambit of the 2010 round of WCA. It was noted that the country updates did not mention if their planned censuses of agriculture would include thematic modules as suggested in the WCA 2010 Programme.
56. The Commission noted that many surveys in member countries continued to be focused on production and area statistics. Existing market information systems were, in general, concentrated on price monitoring. Some have started to develop separate surveys for cost of production. Very few countries, however, reported to have in place regular farm income surveys. In many instances, information on farmers' income came from more comprehensive household income, expenditure and consumption surveys. However, few reported to have undertaken at least one survey focused exclusively on farm income. These were nonetheless undertaken as one shot ad hoc surveys.
57. Member countries reported to have started taking advantage of the countless information technology (IT) options to facilitate data capture, reduction of errors, speed up processing, creation of agricultural databases and generation of a wide variety of reports. Developments in cyberspace had also impacted on how information was being disseminated and shared between data producers and users. All member countries who submitted their updates reported that they were still using the printed mode of disseminating statistics. However, many reported to have been complementing this conventional dissemination modality by using the internet for disseminating country statistics. The advances in IT were also being exploited by member countries in reducing data flow time between field satellite offices and the headquarters.
58. The Commission noted with concern that in many low-income countries, major statistical activities were possible only with donor support. This raised concerns on the sustainability of these activities given the countries' limited resources.
59. A broad spectrum of emerging issues in agricultural statistics was highlighted by member countries. The dynamic changes in the agricultural sector were leading to never ending demands in agricultural statistics, exerting pressure on some countries to review and evaluate their agricultural survey programmes.
60. The Commission noted that among countries with weak statistical infrastructure, limited logistics and weak statistical human resource base continued to be a priority concern. In contrast, countries with better organized agricultural statistics systems were concerned about incorporating in their regular agricultural statistics programme more sectoral and subject-matter specific surveys such as capital formation and food consumption surveys. It was also reported that national statistical systems in many countries were under increasing pressure to support more sophisticated planning and policy formulation processes and adopt advances in information and communication technology. National statistical systems were expected to include in their agricultural statistical programmes such activities as forecasting agricultural output using space, agro-meteorology and land-based observations, small area estimation for bringing out sub-district level crop production estimates, and sound statistical techniques for estimating horticulture production.
