African agricultural statisticians hold talks

November 14, 2017 in Land & Agriculture, Policy by Editor

November 14—Uganda is currently hosting the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS ) conference which ends on Friday in Entebbe.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics(UBOS) Director for Agriculture and Environment Statistics, Peter Okello said the conference will bring together experts in agriculture statistics to share experiences and innovations in the field of gathering data.

“AFCAS helps member’s countries to compare notes regarding the recent advances in the methodologies in compiling agriculture statistics especially in regards to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. A lot of data is demanded to meet the SDGs such that we can monitor the sustainable development goals and we can only do that when there’s best practices data collection,” he said.

Okello said they will use the conference to review and exchange ideas on the state of food and agricultural statistics on the continent, and advise governments on the development of their agricultural statistical systems within the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Programme of Work and Budget for Africa.

AFCAS is a statutory body of FAO and it meets every two years. In attendance are senior statistics officials from FAO member countries on the African continent who are responsible for the development of agricultural data in their respective countries.

Some of the key issues to be discussed include food security and sustainable development goal indicators and the challenges for national statisticians. Other topics are agriculture food losses and waste alongside women’s access to land among other issues.