FAO Statistics Division 7 July 2008 CONFERENCE ON DATA QUALITY FOR INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ROME, JULY 2008 Development of Metadata Framework for National Agricultural Statistics: Recent Experience in Asia and Middle East, and Plans for Expansion to Other Regions FAO Statistics Division 7 July 2008

Preparation of Country Reports Questionnaires Annotated Outline: National System of Agricultural Statistics Major Domains of Selected Indicators of Agric. Stat. Major Data Sources Presentation at APCAS 21

Consultation and Feedbacks from Countries Initial draft country reports reviewed by BAS/FAO Committee: comments Modified (First) draft were discussed at Workshop, in Manila in 2006: Gaps Problems and difficulties After workshop, countries revised again their reports Revised Reports discussed at Focal Points Meeting of RDES, in Cambodia in March 2007.

Preliminary Review of Country Reports Major publications: yearbooks on agric. stat Quarterly indicators of agric stat (price) Occasional report on agricultural census/survey Chapters on agric. stat. in national statist. yearbooks Trade statistics

Preliminary Review of Country Reports (2) Major Domains: production; price; foreign trade; agricultural inputs; agric. credits; food consumption; rural communities and infrastructure Data Sources: agricultural census agricultural production survey

Relationship Between Major Domains and Data Sources In general, agricultural surveys and census produce data for the domains of production, prices, employment

Plans for Expansion to Other Regions The FAO Metadata Framework will be implemented in other regions started with 17 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) under the BMG-funded CountrySTAT project. One of the main activities in the CountrySTAT project is to analyze the situation in countries and prepare benchmark reports on food and agriculture data and metadata in the countries. The Metadata Framework will provide the overall framework for the preparation of these country reports. These benchmark reports will provide reference for evaluation of the impact of project in terms of data accessibility, data quality, and data dissemination.

CONCLUSION FAO metadata framework provides a possible answer to “What should adequate Metadata be?” Metadata helps users interpret agric. stat. Metadata framework is useful for producers to improve the food and agric. stat. system To obtain good metadata, joint efforts are required by all concerned parties Post country reports to countries’ RDES page

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