MoFA commissions national agricultural census
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has commissioned a census to compile data on all farmers and primary agricultural activities in the country.
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The census, which is expected to start in the last quarter of the year, will be jointly conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the Statistics Department of MoFA.
The Minister of State at MoFA, Dr Nurah Gyiele, who disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, said all Ghanaian farmers across the country would be captured under the national agricultural census to develop a comprehensive database of farmers.
Among the information to be collected are the sizes of holding, land tenure, land use, crop area harvested, irrigation, livestock numbers and labour.
When completed, it is expected to provide reliable data on the agricultural sector to enable the MoFA to plan and implement priority policies and programmes for the sector.
The Daily Graphic also gathered that GH¢5 million out of the GH¢22 million required for the census had been released by the Ministry of Finance.
Census delayed
Dr Gyiele, however, explained that the exercise was long overdue since the last census on agriculture was conducted in 1986.
The Statistics, Research and Information Directorate of the MoFA has also made up for the shortfall, with annual agricultural surveys to generate estimates for crops and livestock production.
In 2011, the government applied to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for technical support which was granted in September 2012, and a team of experts in agricultural statistics were appointed to prepare for the census that should have taken place in 2013, but stalled for lack of funding, the paper gathered.
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Data collection and importance
Emphasising the essence of the census, Dr Gyiele said the exercise would help the government know the location of farmers and what they cultivated, and added that it would also afford the government the opportunity to know, for instance, the farm acreage and how much the country was producing to aid planning.
Periodic agriculture censuses are important as these are the main sources of information on basic characteristics of operational holdings such as land use and cropping patterns, irrigation status, tenancy particulars and the terms of leasing.
Global country census
A new global round of country-driven agricultural censuses began in 2016. It is a large-scale data collection process that will gather information on the world's agricultural sector.
To support the process, FAO last year published a set of updated guidelines to assist governments in carrying out their national-level agricultural censuses tailored to meet different country needs and capacities.
These censuses are said to be crucial for governments to implement evidence-based policies to foster agricultural and rural development, ensure access to land, improve food security and reduce the adverse environmental impacts of agricultural activities.
Census data are also essential for the private sector to make informed decisions that guide their investments in agribusiness activities.
