30 November 2015, Kigali, Rwanda

The Statistics Division (ESS), the Agricultural Production and Plant Production and Protection Division (AGP) and the Animal Production and Health Division (AGA) of FAO organize a regional workshop on the estimation of statistics on N inputs from livestock manure, as part of its capacity development efforts towards improved environmental economic statistics and in support of FAO Strategic Objective 2 on Sustainable Food and Agriculture.

The workshop will be held in Kigali (Rwanda) on 30th November 2015 and its conclusions will be reported at the 24th session of the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS), which will take place in Kigali, Dec 1-4 2015. A total of 16 participants is expected to attend from nine African countries: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Rwanda and Uganda. 

The workshop aims to raise awareness on the importance of improved livestock manure data, including availability, storage and application as fertilizer. Manure plays an important role in sustaining agricultural production, particularly in extensive (low inputs) systems, where it provides a cheap, readily available resource that helps to replenish soil nutrients and maintain soil fertility. Appropriate knowledge and data on manure management, storage and application is needed, in order to minimize possible negative environmental impacts linked to nitrogen leaching and runoff and to greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the importance of manure for sustainable food and agriculture production, data on manure availability, storage management and application are currently scarce and scattered.

The workshop will bring together high-level technical staff of Ministries of Agriculture, National Statistical Agencies and Ministries of Environment, to explore how to improve livestock manure statistics. The workshop will provide an opportunity to exchange information on relevant national data processes, identify critical institutional and technical gaps and explore the role that FAO can play in support of its member countries’ needs towards improved data for evidence-based decision making in agriculture, with relevance to the new 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, national GHG inventories, and the emergent System of Economic and Environmental Accounting for Agriculture (SEEA-Agriculture).