Cairo, Egypt - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) have held a five days Training of Trainees (TOT) workshop on “World Program for the Census of Agriculture 2020 (WCA 2020)”.

This training provides the foundation to use modern methodologies and technique, which can be applied in the agricultural census 2019-2020, and that are in line with Egypt’s priority to increase the agricultural productivity of smallholder and the sustainable management of natural resources.

Dr. Mohamed Yacoub, Assistant FAO representative, Dr. Mohamed AbdelNabi, Head of the Economic Affairs sector in MALR and Mr. Elie Choueiri, Programme Associate in FAO Lebanon and the responsible for the training. While representative from Economic Affair sector have attended the training, as trainees.

“It is expected that this training will enhance MALR capacities to implement effectively the agricultural census 2019-2020 through enhancing planning, programming and coordination capacities, as well as making progress to carry out an agricultural census in line with the World programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA),” said Hussein Gadain, FAO Representative.

The training will involve enhancing the census tools such as inclusion model, questionnaire, guidelines and an action plan in accordance with the recommendations of the World Agricultural Congress 2020. The structural data resulting from the 2019-2020 agricultural Survey will be reflected on the future decisions in the agricultural sector.

FAO working group, jointly with a working group from MALR, will take full responsibility for project management, implementation and coordination, including technical advice and support to project staff on legal and technical policy issues. During the project implementation, the working group, with the support of MALR, particularly the agricultural economic sector, will coordinate closely and obtain inputs from other departments, civil society organizations, universities and development partners.

“The agricultural census in previous periods was based on methodologies applied since 2010. Given the development in the agricultural census methodologies, we sought FAO international expertise to provide an update on the newly applied methodologies in the agricultural census domain and the new agricultural census applications which can be used in preparing the census that will start in October 2018 until October 2021,” said Dr. Mohamed Abdelnabi, Head of the Economic Affairs sector in MALR.

The agricultural census is one of the key pillars of a national statistical system, it is often the only means of producing statistical information on the structure and other relevant aspects of the agriculture sector. Moreover, it is the only data collection instrument that produces statistical information on farms at the lowest geographical level and therefore it is an essential source of information for governments and decision-makers in member countries

The agricultural census will also allow Egypt to benchmark their performance against other member countries. It also provide the foundation for countries to develop an integrated census and survey programme, to use innovative and cost-effective methodologies, and ultimately to make better informed strategic decision in line with the sustainable development goals, especially that Egypt is one of the countries that signed the international agreement with the international institute for agriculture in Rome on 1928, which requires that the singed countries carry out an agricultural census each 10 years, noting that the last one was conducted in Egypt during the period 2009-2010.