The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) have joined forces to conduct an agricultural census to assist with planning in the sector.
To this effect, FAO has made a budget provision of N$3.4 million towards the census, which is set to run for 18 months, having begun in July.
“The provision of reliable and timely data for informing national policies in the agricultural and rural sectors, prompted the need to have a strategic plan for agricultural and rural statistics (SPARS) in place.The project aims to put in place SPARS implementation mechanisms and a long-term and sustainable funding for agricultural statistical system,” said Farayi Zimudzi, the FAO Representative in Namibia said on Friday.
“The project will also contribute in the long run to improving the availability, quality and accessibility of data and statistics pertaining to the food and agriculture sectors and all underlying dimensions including environmental, social, economic, and governance aspects of the sector,” she added.
“If Namibia wishes to transform its agricultural sector and realise its full potential to help achieve food and nutrition security, a shift towards timely and accurate statistical data will be a key tool in ensuring that this ambitious goal is realised.”
The SPARS agreement comes at a time when demands for agricultural statistics are increasing not only at national level but also at regional and international levels.
According to the parties, there is a need to increase, harmonize and consolidate agricultural statistics on a national level, as it has become a matter of developmental significance because data is widely viewed as an accelerator for more targeted agricultural interventions.
“Namibia is shifting towards leading the integration of the fusion of technology and data, and digitalization, which will involve embarking on a radical statistical revolution that could open space for open data policy to better manage public data source integration. To enable the country to meet growing demand for high quality of close to real time and accessible agricultural statistics, there is a need to develop statistical strategies that will aid as planning and implementation tools,” said NSA Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni.
Zimudzi however, noted that this assistance is in line with FAO Namibia’s Country Programming Framework (CPF) under Government Priority One of strengthened policy, legal, strategic and institutional frameworks for agriculture; fisheries, forestry, food security and nutrition.
In turn SPARS will provide guarantees for a better coverage of agricultural and rural statistics for the country as well as respond to regional and international requirements. It will further ensure mechanisms for a good integration of the agricultural sector into the existing and future strategic plans of the NSA. In addition, SPARS will improve administrative data for agriculture statistics through presentation, consistency, quality and accessibility.
