National Workshop: Piloting new approaches for long-term sustainability of ASTI (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

From 29 to 30 April, the Statistics Division (ESS) and the Office of Innovation (OIN) of FAO organized a workshop in Buenos Aires (Argentina) to start discussing the country implementation and preparation of the upcoming ASTI pilot in the country.  

As the agency responsible for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology Indicators (ASTI), a global leading programme in compiling and analyzing agricultural research data, FAO is conducting a series of workshops in selected countries where FAO and ASTI partners will start the ASTI implementation phase. The outcomes of the pilot will serve as a critical input to designing the ASTI survey for the global roll out in 2025.

The two-day workshop convened key national stakeholders to introduce them to the ASTI methodology and procedures as well as initiate dialogues between national agricultural research institutes (NARIs) and the national statistical office (NSO). These dialogues aim to unveil and present the new data collection approach while deliberating on and exploring strategies for effective integration of ASTI into National Statistical System (NSS) mechanisms, a crucial step for providing collecting agencies with a clear mandate, ensuring quality, and official validation of the data.

Objectives:

The specific objectives of the two-day workshop were to:

• Introduce the ASTI programme and its new operational mechanisms.
  
• Discuss strategies to enhance the long-term institutionalization of ASTI and to maximize
  policy uptake of ASTI outputs at the national level.
  
• Initiate dialogues between NARIs and the NSO to build a common understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the new approach.
  
• Train participants on the ASTI methodology, data management portal and survey processing monitoring.
  
• Discuss and collectively formulate an agreed methodology and way forward for implementation of the ASTI pilot in Argentina, including series of activities to be carried out during the country survey pilot.

Participants from several national agencies, including INTA (Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria/Centro de Investigación en Economía y Prospectiva), INDEC (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos), Secretaría de Innovación, Ciencia y Tecnología and Secretaría de Bioeconomía) attended the workshop.