Foreword

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A Handbook of Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) was released in 1974 "to help statisticians compile agricultural accounts in the most useful and standardized form that is possible ... and to provide world guidelines in the construction of economic accounts for agriculture". This Handbook, which was based on the 1968 United Nation System of National Accounts, referred mainly to the productive activities of crop and livestock producers. The present revision of the Handbook entitled "A System of Economic Accounts for Food and Agriculture" (SEAFA), provides a broader framework to bring together various kinds of databases relating to food and agriculture (including forestry and fisheries) in an integrated system. The concepts and accounting structure of the system are based on the revised System of National Accounts ( 1993). The present Handbook, in addition to describing the system, includes details of crop and livestock production and linkages with the FAO's Food Balance Sheets. It is planned to extend the coverage of SEAFA to include similar information about forestry, logging and fisheries together with some natural resource accounts or environmental accounts. The revised system is intended to be helpful for all countries, irrespective of their stage of development.

In view of the status of statistical development in some developing countries, a section on methods and techniques of estimation has also been included to facilitate the compilation of SEAFA. It is also planned to make the section on methods and techniques more comprehensive by including suggested solutions for problems faced by various countries in the compilation of SEAFA. Comments and suggestions for improving the Handbook and making it more comprehensive would be greatly appreciated. These comments should be sent to the Director, Statistics Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalle, 00100 Rome, Italy.

Director
Statistics Division


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