FAO provides technical support and capacity building to partner countries in the development and implementation of national agricultural surveys for the production of more and better data to inform policy making.
The agricultural surveys are designed to provide complete, fully representative data on agriculture from both household and non-household (commercial) farms over a 10-year cycle, which is the typical time in-between agricultural censuses.
FAO applies the AGRIS methodology, a farm-based multi-year integrated survey programme developed by the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural Statistics.
This innovative survey toolkit has a modular approach that joins an annual core module and several periodic rotating modules that cover vital socioeconomic and environmental variables. Its flexible modular approach creates a survey system that can respond to emerging demands at national, regional, or global levels.
Depending on their needs, partner countries may periodically add a module on households’ non-farm income and living standards. The implementation of this questionnaire can be limited to the agricultural survey sample or it may be extended to cover also an additional sample of non-agricultural households living in rural areas.
The ultimate outcome is the production of high-quality data encompassing a wide range of technical, economic, environmental and social dimensions of agriculture. Such data supports countries in addressing food security, sustainability, and climate change and establishing a path towards transforming agrifood systems.
FAO offers technical assistance to countries and statistical capacity building along the whole data production process, including support on:
- Data production: data needs assessments with national stakeholders, survey design and development of questionnaires and manuals, data collection, use of advanced technologies, data processing and analysis.
- Data dissemination: development of tabulation plans, technical support on data curation, documentation and preservation and data anonymization.
Monitoring SDGs indicators
Data provided through the implementation of integrated agricultural surveys help countries monitor progress towards targets set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the agricultural sector, covering in particular SDG indicators 2.3.1 (labour productivity of smallholders), 2.3.2 (income of smallholders), 2.4.1 (land area under productive and sustainable agriculture) and 5.a.1 (agricultural land ownership and tenure rights of women and men).
With FAO's support, Cambodia, Georgia, Indonesia, Senegal and Uganda were able to generate data for the monitoring of SDGs indicators.
Reporting on CAADP Indicators
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is Africa’s policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition, economic growth and prosperity for all. In Maputo, Mozambique in 2003, the African Union Summit made the first declaration on CAADP as an integral part of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The data produced with the programme's support help countries in the reporting exercise to measure their progress in the CAADP framework, including targets for reducing poverty and malnutrition, increasing productivity and farm incomes, and improving the sustainability of agricultural production and use of natural resources.
Women's empowerment metric for national statistical systems (WEMNS)
WEMNS is a streamlined tool for measuring women’s empowerment, which can be integrated in large-scale, multitopic surveys. The scale is applicable to both agricultural and non-agricultural livelihoods. This tool addresses the same aspects of gender equality considered by SDG 5 and it is based on a light questionnaire, which can potentially be included in existing national survey programmes. Under the umbrella of the Initiative, FAO will integrate the WEMNS scale in national agricultural surveys, to mainstreaming women’s empowerment and nutrition in 50x2030 countries. The availability of these data facilitates a more informed policy making process, providing sound evidence to influence policies and investment choices towards improving women’s living standards and rights and fostering a more nutrition-sensitive agricultural production in the targeted countries.