(Item 4 of the agenda)30. The Secretary of the commission introduced document APCAS/00/3 FAO’s Activities in Food and Agricultural Statistics during 1998-2000 in the Asia and Pacific Region. The commission appreciated the FAO’s efforts in this field during the last two years.
31. The commission was informed that the 25th session of the FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, held in Yokohama, Japan, 28 August - 1 September 2000, made recommendations which had implications on the priorities and directions of the national agricultural statistical programmes of member countries.
32. The commission expressed its appreciation for the FAO’s continuing lead role in the promotion of the Programme for the World Census of Agriculture. It was pleased to be informed that after China had completed its first Census of Agriculture in 1997, in-depth analyses and extensive use were made of the results; FAO provided technical assistance through an Italy-funded project.
33. The Secretary further informed the commission that the regional “Workshop on Census of Agriculture 2000: Structural Aquaculture Statistics” was held in Hat-Yai, Songkhla, Thailand, 28 February to 3 March 2000 in cooperation with the National Statistical Office of Thailand, with participation of fourteen Asian countries. The Workshop used as the main reference the Guidelines on the Collection of Structural Aquaculture Statistics - Supplement to the Programme for the World Census of Agriculture 2000. In addition, a National Demonstration Center on Agricultural Census was also held in Fiji in March 1999, for the benefit of Pacific countries.
34. The commission noted that FAO’s activities in respect of statistical data collection, processing, analysis and dissemination had been primarily oriented towards enhancing the availability, access and quality of food and agricultural information system. The focus was on improving statistical methodologies, harmonizing nomenclatures, classifications and techniques for data collection, processing and dissemination in order to promote international comparability. It was also informed of the progress made to develop and use virtual questionnaires to collect and verify data on production of primary and derived products, livestock numbers and livestock products, land use and many other basic statistics. Traditional data transmission methods were being gradually replaced by more efficient electronic media means. Moreover, the commission was informed that FAO was now regularly preparing estimates relating to the prevalence of undernourishment at the country, regional and global levels as a major input to the new FAO publication “The State of Food Insecurity in the World” (SOFI).
35. The commission took note of FAO’s contribution to the global efforts to eradicate poverty and noted with interest the activities to further strengthen the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System (FIVIMS). The commission also appreciated FAO’s initiatives in organizing expert consultations, seminars and meetings as a useful mechanism in strengthening national statistical services and early warning systems to support poverty alleviation and food security programmes. These included: an Expert Consultation on the Development of Agricultural Statistics for Food Policy (June/July 1999); a Seminar on Remote Sensing for Agricultural Statistics (June 1999); and a Technical Meeting on Methodology for Food Crop Forecasting (December 1999). A Farm Data Systems Review in selected countries in the region, aimed at improving techniques/methodologies for collecting farm level data, was also held in Bangkok in July 2000.
36. The commission recognized FAO’s continuing efforts to further improve the content and quality of fishery and forestry statistics. In addition to organizing the regional “Workshop on Census of Agriculture 2000: Structural Aquaculture Statistics”, FAO also organized, in cooperation with the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre (SEAFDEC), an Expert Consultation and Regional Workshop on the Development of Guidelines for the Routine Collection of Capture Fisheries Data, in Bangkok in May 1998.
37. The commission expressed its appreciation for FAO’s efforts to develop and implement criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. It was pleased to note that through the partnership programme, FAO had launched a new initiative entitled “Information and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management: Linking National and International Efforts in South Asia and Southeast Asia” to promote sustainable management of trees and forests in the region. It also appreciated the efforts of the Regional Wood Energy Development Programme to develop a database on wood energy.
38. The commission acknowledged the progress made in the implementation of the on-going Japan-funded regional project on Improvement of Agricultural Statistics in Asia and Pacific countries.
39. The commission noted with appreciation the technical assistance provided to a number of countries, including projects that were successfully completed, on-going, or in the pipeline. It appreciated FAO’s continuing concern to help countries in the region improve and/or develop their national agricultural statistical services. Regarding assistance to Bangladesh in crop yield forecasting, the commission noted that cooperation among various agencies involved in this field needed to be strengthened.
40. The commission was pleased to note that FAO had maintained close cooperation with UN and international organizations involved in food and agricultural statistics in the Asia and Pacific region. The continuing joint efforts with the Tokyo-based Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) in the organization and conduct of various training workshops on selected subjects in the field of food and agricultural statistics were cited as an example. The commission also recognized the benefits gained by member countries in participating in the different workshops on selected topics in the field of agriculture statistics, such as: SIAP/FAO Workshop on System of Economic Accounts for Agriculture, Kunming, China; Regional Workshop on Food Balance Sheet, Seoul, Republic of Korea; and Workshop on Food Balance Sheets, Suva, Fiji.
41. The commission concurred that the key issues in the further development of food and agricultural statistics in the region should be focused on: (a) crop forecasting, including the possible inclusion of national forecasts in FAOSTAT; (b) livestock statistics; and (c) the emerging interests in agribusiness statistics. In connection with the last item, the commission was informed that RAP was planning to organize an Expert Consultation on Agribusiness Statistics, in 2001.
42. The commission was grateful that its biennial session had been convened as scheduled. It also appreciated the continued interest and support of member countries in the activities of the commission and recognized FAO’s continuing efforts in this field during the last few years.
43. A second Document APCAS/00/5 An Overview of FAO’s Statistics on Agricultural Production and Trade for Asia and Pacific Countries was also presented under this Agenda Item.
44. The commission was informed that in the last few years, FAO’s priority in its statistical activity had been to increase the availability and quality of the food and agriculture statistics and improve the nomenclatures, classifications, methodologies and techniques for data collection, processing and dissemination. It was also informed that developments in information technology, particularly the facilities offered by the Internet, were opening new opportunities for national and international institutions to increase the quantity and quality of statistical data and to promote “real-time” relationships with both producers and users of information. FAO had been using these facilities to verify consistency of time series, integrate the FAO database with other data sources, calculate derived indicators, generate statistical tables and disseminate the main modules of the FAO database. The commission was further informed that increased attention was being given to statistical data analysis in order to identify the disparities in the distribution of agricultural resources and food consumption potential and inform FAO data users on the world food and agricultural issues.
45. The commission was informed that the FAO database, FAOSTAT, was providing an integrated database management system that would permit the inter-linked presentation of production, trade, stocks and utilization data including the preparation of derived statistics from the same set of basic data. It also had the facility to provide conversion ratios and food consumption factors (calories, protein and fat). The database was now covering more than 200 countries and 1,019 commodity accounts for crops and crop products, livestock and livestock products, fish and fishery products as well as information on agricultural inputs and population. It could store a maximum of around 621 million data items.
46. FAO’s data collection activities were highly dependent on national resources and capacities. While the most common data collection mode was through hard copy questionnaires, the system was being gradually replaced with the more efficient electronic media mode (CD-ROM, diskettes, e-mail, ftp). Recently, FAO had started to use virtual questionnaires to collect and verify the data on production of primary and derived agricultural products, livestock numbers and livestock products, land use, and many other basic statistics.
47. An overview of the analysis on statistical availability and data quality was presented. The commission was informed that the quality of data was a very complex concept which had to be defined taking into accounts all its components: relevance, accuracy, accessibility and clarity, comparability, coherence and completeness. The percentage share of official data was calculated as the proportion of the number of data cells filled in from official country-level statistics to the total data cells of the FAO database. Using this measure, the analysis for 1997, in quantity terms, showed the following: (a) official data represented 62.2% of total data on production of crops and crop products; (b) 88.9% of total data on agricultural imports and 96% of total data on agricultural exports. In Asia and Pacific countries, the highest share of official statistics to total data on crop production was recorded in 1995 (68.9%). Thereafter, the share of official data registered a declining trend.
48. Using a similar approach based on the total number of available cells of the supply utilization accounts database in 1997, the analysis noted that globally, over 52% of crop products data had been estimated using non-official statistical data sources, whereas in the Asia and Pacific region more than half of the data cells were estimated using semi-official information or imputed methods. It was also noted that a declining percentage of official data had been recorded in all regions over the last eight years. Moreover, this decrease was higher in the case of trade data than production data on crop products. The very low level of official data on production of livestock products could be a reflection of an over dimension of the structure of the database and a more in-depth analysis seemed to be in order.
49. The commission recommended that the methodology and usefulness of the exercise on availability and quality of statistics on agricultural production and trade for the Asia-Pacific countries should be revisited.
50. The commission was pleased to note that many member countries were categorized by FAO as belonging to the group of countries with a constant high level of official data. It, however, expressed concern on the declining trend in the level of compliance of national statistical services to the data requests of FAO. In this connection, member countries were requested to visit FAOSTAT, review their respective national data, and provide FAO with a critical evaluation as to the extent of conformity of FAO database relative to their official statistics. The commission also expressed its support to the suggestion that new means for permanent and direct contact with national statistics and agriculture experts should be established. It further supported the suggestion that standard statistical tools should include a dedicated module to convert country specific concepts and definitions into an integrated central system in order to optimize the use of information.
