Consideration of the agricultural statistics assessment at national level WANG Pingping National Bureau of Statistics of China Aug. 13, Maputo

Background  Agricultural census every ten year mainly by NBS  Sample survey on grain harvest, livestock, agricultural producer prices, and rural household income & expenditure, conducted by NBS  Agriculture accounting by NBS  Land census and survey through remote sensing by Ministry of Land Resource  Forestry census by National bureau of forestry  Administrative report on crops planting, fishery, aquaculture, forestry by Ministry of Agricultural, National Bureau of Forestry.

However…..  Demands expand more quickly than supplies Needs for grain for bio-fuel Needs for the effect of agricultural on environment Needs for labor mobility of rural area Needs for effect of the grain-for green program( ecology-restore program) Needs for more accurate data of cotton and other crop harvests Needs for food balance sheet Needs for more timely, decentralized data  Overload of the local survey team and statistical bureau  Conflict of data from different source and at different level sometime  Increasing worry about the quality of the data

Content of assessment  Availability  Satisfaction of needs  Ways to improve

Availability  content, source, periodicity, aggregation level, data collecting, processing and disseminating method, availability of data for various users

Satisfaction of needs  What are the needs and, where they come from?  Do they satisfied?  Why not?

What are the needs and, where they come from?  Based on: The status of agriculture sector in national economy The status of agriculture of a nation or an area in the agriculture of the world and the national Statue of domestic agricultural products in food security of the nation The composition of the crops, livestock, food etc. The level decision-making  To give out the indicator/content list by priority

Do they satisfied?  In terms of Content, timeliness, accuracy, disaggregating level, availability for various users etc

Why not?  Man power limitation?  Financial constraint ?  Methodology disadvantage?  Problem of needs itself?  Gaps among the needs, methodology and manpower/ financial support? 

Methodology disadvantage?  Transparency and openness  Adaptation and normalization  Coherence ..

Transparency and openness of methodology The whole procedure of data producing should be transparent and controlled by total quality. the survey procedure should be opened to public review for improvement.

Adaptation and normalization of methodology Concept, definition, framework, sample design, data collecting, processing, dissemination method should be in line with international approach and be adapted to domestic situation.

coherence of relevant survey data the relevant data from different source should in coherence, and be consistent with each other. Avoiding the conflict of data from different sources, lower level estimates should be almost equal to a higher level estimates.

Ways to improve  Ways to improve the needs  Ways to improve the methodology  Ways to improve the capacity of management

Ways to improve the needs  Full communication with users for finding the needs and proper using the data  List all the “real needs”: important, urgent properly needs  Inform the user about the dissemination schedule: content, date, disaggregation level, accuracy…. Even the limitation

Ways to improve the methodology  ………

Ways to improve the capacity of management  Find the suitable task holder  Plan the budget  Plan the man power  …..

Finally, a suggestion to FAO/ World Bank  To launch a program and set up a platform for translating the survey and census programs of various countries into versions in common language and bringing them together for the reference of globe agricultural statistics society

 Thanks for attention!