The Expert Consultation on Root Crop Statistics was held from 3 to 6 December 2002 at the Sheraton Conference Center in Harare, Zimbabwe. The meeting was a joint effort of the Statistics Division in FAO Headquarters and the FAO Regional Office for Africa in Accra, in close cooperation with the FAO Plant Production and Protection Division. The FAO Sub-Regional Office for Southern and Eastern Africa in Harare assisted in the organization and servicing of the meeting. The meeting was conducted in English.
The Consultation brought together ten experts from different Regions in the fields of agronomy, agricultural statistics and agricultural economy in order to benefit from their experience with the ultimate view of developing methodology for estimating and forecasting production of root and tuber crops. Five FAO staff members from different units and a consultant participated in the Expert Consultation.
For the sake of simplicity, the title of the Expert Consultation was kept short (Root Crop Statistics), but it is explicitly intended to cover both root and tuber crops, as well as paying attention to related products such as leaves and other edible parts of several of these crops.
The purpose of the meeting was to document the experiences in different aspects of root crop statistics existing in various countries such as agronomic aspects, different ways of assessing performance and how to estimate and forecast production. In the long-term, the intention was to prepare and publish guidelines for the collection of root and tuber crop statistics in developing countries.
The outcome of the Expert Consultation was in the first place the papers themselves and then the conclusions arising from the discussions and the recommendations to FAO on the development of actions to be undertaken as guidance for a Plan of Action.
In total 15 papers were presented by the participants, grouped into the following main topics: Background Information; Importance of Root Crops for Food Security and Data Use for Planning; Agronomic Aspects of Root and Tuber Crops; Estimation of Area, Yield and Production of Roots and Tubers; Estimation of Crop Losses in Root and Tuber Crops. Each group of papers was the subject of extensive discussion.
Thereafter, the participants were divided into two panel groups in order to discuss the specific problems of estimating production of roots (cassava), and tubers (respectively yams, sweetpotatoes and coco yams). Each panel then presented their assessment of the problems with present methods followed, proposals regarding suitably modified or improved methodology that could be applied immediately and recommendations on further work to be carried out, including an action plan for experimentation on methodological aspects.
The main output of the Expert Consultation is as follows:
1. In order to monitor the follow-up to this Expert Consultation and to provide future guidance in the development of methodology, the meeting set up an Informal Committee on Root Crop Statistics with specific Terms of Reference.
2. Furthermore, the participants to the Expert Consultation prepared a number of technical and methodological conclusions and recommendations, which were discussed and consolidated. The present report was approved by the participants prior to the conclusion of the meeting.
3. It was agreed that the immediate follow-up to the Expert Consultation should consist of preparing a provisional manual with guidelines on collecting production statistics for Root and Tuber Crops, based on the information provided by participants in their papers and the subsequent discussions during the meeting.
4. Simultaneously, a number of projects and organizations, identified during the meeting, will be approached to seek their interest in participating in controlled experiments and other development of methodology. At various points during this process, the Informal Committee will be requested to review progress, provide advice and evaluate the outcome of various actions being undertaken.
The proceedings of the Expert Consultation consist of two volumes: Volume I covers the present Report of the meeting, including abstracts of the papers presented. The Volume II contains the full text of the papers presented by the participants in either English or French, with abstracts in both languages. The two reports are also available on CD-ROM, with the addition of a selection of background papers, publications and references that were considered to be of relevance to the subject of the Consultation.
