Successful Completion of FARMECO, Typology and Indicators Workshop to Strengthen Agricultural Statistics in Niger

The Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (GSARSII) has successfully concluded a workshop in Niger as part of the FARMECO, Typology and Indicators packages. The mission, held from May 14 to 22, 2024, focused on enhancing agricultural statistics and rural data through various technical assistance packages. 

The workshop aimed to finalize technical assistance in the packages of FARMECO, Farm Typology, and Indicators. The primary partner, the Directorate of Statistics (DS) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG/EL), collaborated closely with FAO statisticians to achieve significant milestones during the workshop. 

The training’s key achievements included the development and implementation of data collection tools for the pilot FARMECO survey, ensuring robust data-gathering processes. Extensive training sessions were conducted on using statistical software for agricultural survey data analysis and on the concepts and definitions of farm typologies. Data gaps analysis and Hands-on sessions to compute CAADP indicators were conducted to benefit stakeholders in charge of Malabo biennial reporting. Furthermore, the mission processed and analyzed data from the FARMECO pilot survey, preparing technical notes on agricultural economic indicators and their calculation procedures. 

Capacity-building workshops were a significant component of the mission, focusing on data utilization and statistical methods for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Niger staff and broader stakeholder groups. The concluding workshop on May 22 featured presentations of results from the FARMECO, Typology, and Indicators modules. Attendees included key stakeholders such as representatives from the Directorate of Statistics (DS-MAG/EL), the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the National Observatory for Poverty (ONP), the Directorate of Agricultural Economics (DAE), the Directorate of Rural Engineering and Agricultural Production Chains (DSRE/APCA), the Directorate of Planning and Agricultural Markets (DPA/MHA), the Permanent Secretariat of the National Statistical Information System (SP/SPIN), and the Network of Chambers of Agriculture (RECA). 

The sessions included collaborative discussions on various agricultural statistical topics, highlighting critical insights, including discrepancies in fertilizer usage data compared to other sources, challenges in agricultural household access to financing, and methodologies for accounting and cost allocation in agricultural surveys.