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Minister for Food and Agriculture, Honourable Kwesi Ahwoi has called for continuous effort by African countries to use efficient modern technology for generation of timely and necessary data for the Agricultural sector.
This he noted was crucial for proper planning in the sector and in the external country.
According to him the current method of measurement and yields studies employed in gathering data in Ghana and in other parts0 of the continent, requires costly field equipment and human resources which puts a lot of strains on the Agric Ministry’s budgets.
He thus called for a shift to cost effective technologies such as the use of remote sensing, aerial photography and the geography and geographical position system (GPS). The minister made these remarks when he opened a four-day conference on Agricultural Statistics at the 21st session of African Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS) held in Accra last week.
The minister called for an expansion in the scope of the data collected to include general agriculture information that will guide the formulation of the sector’s development strategies and to evaluate the outcomes and impact of the global and regional programmes such as the MDGs and the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP)
Organization under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the conference brought together statisticians on the continent working in the area of agric to discuss ways of harmonizing their activities, programmes for statistical capacity building and new developments in statistics concerning agricultural sub-sectors among others.
The workshop drew participants from all over the Africa, the US and Europe.
In the welcoming note Grace Bediako, Government Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service point out that, agriculture is the mainstay of the Ghanaian economy, employing about 53 per cent of women and 61 per cent of men. Grace Bediako also noted that about a third of the GDP is generated from the agricultural sector.
She however made the observation that the sector is one of the most difficult areas for obtaining accurate and timely data in Ghana.
The statistician stressed the need for statistics to support planning for this sector.
“On the production side, we should generate the data that would facilitate the measurement of supply and estimation of the demand for agricultural produce; and to determine the gaps, that is the shortfalls and surpluses, she stated.
She called for a complete overhaul of the agricultural statistics system, and tasked governments and development partners to provide support in that direction.
She bemoaned the fact that, for lack of resources, statistical development is given low priority in development countries, even though they are needed for sound policy decision making.
Source: Financial Intelligence, Monday November 2, 2009, Page 15.
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