National Censuses of Agriculture to kick off in francophone Africa
Regional roundtable in Dakar disseminates new FAO guidelines setting international standards on agricultural data collection
7 November 2016, Accra/Dakar – Country-driven agricultural censuses are set to begin shortly in Africa to gather statistics on the agriculture sector.
To support the process, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with the support of the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse Economique (ENSAE), is organizing a regional roundtable on the World Programme for the Censuses of Agriculture 2020 (WCA 2015-2020).
The regional roundtable, which will take place from 7 to 11 November in Dakar, Senegal, is the third in a series of regional sessions designed to present and disseminate a set of updated guidelines to assist governments in improving their national censuses of agriculture.
The new guidelines were developed by FAO’s Agricultural Censuses and Surveys team, part of the statistics division, following a revision of country experiences and consultations with a wide array of stakeholders.
“We are now rolling them out among FAO member countries through eight regional roundtables. The workshops will help countries gain a deeper understanding of the new approaches and methodologies to data collection being advocated by FAO through this new census Programme”, says Jairo Castano, FAO Agricultural Censuses and Surveys team leader.
Accelerating agricultural growth
Agricultural Censuses are of particularly strategic importance in Africa, where 54.2 percent of the total population relies on agriculture and where rapid population growth makes food production, food security and resilience to climate change utmost priorities. Accurate information on agriculture is crucial for African governments to appraise the composition, distribution and prospective growth of the agricultural sector, as well as to support informed decisions leading to more investments in agri-business activities.
“22 African countries conducted an agricultural census in the 2010 census round that covered the period 2005-2015. We expect that the number of countries will rise to a new record in the 2020 round as 27 countries are either conducting or planning to conduct a census of agriculture”, says Eloi Ouedraogo, FAO Regional Statistician for Africa.
The information collected will provide an accurate picture of the agricultural sector and a reliable sampling frame for current agricultural surveys. By collecting structural data on agriculture such as the number, size and distribution of holdings, land tenure, land use, crop area, crop intensity, irrigation, livestock numbers, machinery and equipment, as well as socio-demographic characteristics, work and other inputs, agriculture censuses can provide actionable insights for governments and their farm sectors.
About the WCA 2020
Censuses of agriculture are considered the most important and complete source of information on agriculture. The WCA 2020 was published in 2015 and will cover the census period 2016-2025.
The new guidelines were developed under FAO’s World Programme for the Census of Agriculture and will help member countries harmonize their data, thus making cross-country comparisons and benchmarks possible and facilitating the identification of best practices.
Countries that adopt the WCA 2020 guidelines for conducting their national census of agriculture will benefit from innovative and cost-effective methodologies as well as by advice on integrating census and survey programmes and broadening the dissemination of census data for informed strategic decisions.
During the Dakar meeting, national plans for implementing the next round of agricultural census and surveys will also be reviewed.