Workshop on Establishing Agricultural and Rural Survey Calendar of Bangladesh based upon Integrated Planning of Agricultural Census and Surveys

01/08/2016-05/08/2016 Pattaya, Thailand

The workshop on Establishing Agriculture and Rural Survey calendar of Bangladesh was organized in Pattaya, Thailand from 1 to 5 August 2016 through a partnership of Regional office of FAO and the National Statistics Service (NASS) of USDA to support improvement of agricultural statistics in Bangladesh, a focus country for FAO. The financial resources for the workshop were provided by USAID, while NASS and FAO contributed their technical expertise.

The workshop aimed to prepare (1) A blue print of the Integrated Agricultural Census, 2018; and (2) A shared National Survey Calendar for Bangladesh which will be at the heart of the Strategic Plan for Agricultural and Rural Statistics (SPARS) being prepared under the technical assistance component of the Global Strategy programme.

A total of 16 sector specialists from Bangladesh government representing Crops, Livestock, Fish, and Forests came together with Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) to work towards a shared goal of improving statistics in an integrated manner. Ms Sarah Hoffman, USDA - NASS and Mr Mukesh Srivastava, Senior Statistician, FAO, Bangkok in their opening remarks highlighted the ongoing collaboration between USDA, FAO and Bangladesh Government, and emphasized the importance of establishing synergies among the efforts of national stakeholders and sharing of responsibilities in data production based upon their respective comparative advantages in domain expertise, manpower availability and financial resources.

Apart from learning the new features of FAO’s WCA2020, and the concepts of AGRIS survey tool being prepared under the Global Strategy, the participants reviewed the design of agricultural censuses of Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Tonga as an example for designing the Integrated Agricultural Census of Bangladesh. The participants recommended that the outputs of this workshop should be presented at a high-level inter-departmental meeting for endorsement at decision making level in the Government.

Meeting Documents

1. Timetable

2. List of Participants

Presentations

1. New features of World Census of Agriculture 2020

2. Planning for Census and Survey Success (USDA)

3. Past Bangladesh Census Experience – Crops, Livestock, Fishery, Forestry

4. Integrated Census and Survey Planning using modular approach

4a. Fishery Statistics

5. USDA Census Program Planning Cycle

6. Census Country Examples – Cambodia

7. Census Country Examples – Lao PDR