1. Accurate and timely data sets are needed by various participants in the livestock subsector. Farm gate prices are needed by producers to determine their herd structure and off-take and the corresponding input levels. Farm-wholesale-retail price margins are required by the relevant distributors to determine the type and levels of livestock products to offer at the retail end. Government planners are interested in domestic livestock supply-demand gaps to obtain an idea of the potential foreign exchange pressures from imports.
2. Apart from monitoring the main economic activities, data sets are generated to audit particular government functions. Statistics on livestock movements at established control posts are collected to provide benchmark information of animal related tax revenues and levels of live animal imports from neighbouring countries. Statistics on disease outbreaks are gathered to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns.
3. Since a livestock information set is a crucial input in livestock policy planning, implementation, and monitoring, it is important that we focus attention on who manages the collection and processing of key livestock statistics. In the case of Nigeria, the Federal Livestock Department (FLD) has, since 1981, been given the responsibility for the development of information support to the livestock subsector. Presently, the data collection mandate of the Federal Livestock Department is being enhanced through a technical support package provided by the Second Livestock Development Project (SLDP). SLDP is funded by a World Bank loan. The total external loan extended to Nigeria under the project is $82 million.
4. It is within the FLD context that this paper aims to:
(i) provide a perspective of the data collection system used in generating livestock statistics;
(ii) present a set of information priorities required by the livestock subsector for planning purposes;
(iii) describe a data processing structure which will facilitate the management of a livestock data bank.
