GSS, MoFA non-standard units survey starts Monday
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) will from Monday begin the Ghana Non-Standard Units Survey (GNSUS) 2024.
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The market and household survey, which will take about 34 days to complete, establishes the accurate measurement of agricultural produce, products and other food commodities sold and consumed in the country.
The aim is to provide better contextual understanding and contribute to an effective policy design. A statement from the GSS said 244 field enumerators and supervisors had been trained out of which 203 would be selected for the fieldwork based on their performance.
Training
The six-day training will enable field enumerators and their supervisors to survey by providing reliable aggregation and comparison of standardising local units (Non-Standard Units, NSUs) at the market and households to improve the accuracy of measurement of food consumption and agricultural production.
Although Ghana adopted the metric system (SI System) in September 1975, a different system, NSUs, is still being used for weighing agricultural produce and food commodities.
Thus, the imperial system of weights and measurements still prevails. Therefore, re-establishing the accurate and appropriate conversion units is important to produce valid measurements, thereby enhancing the quality of the surveys and making analysis easier by being able to sum up all commodities irrespective of the community, district ecological zone or region.
The GSS is, therefore, appealing to the selected households and the various market leaders to cooperate with the field officers to identify the local units, weigh and record and take photos for reliable and timely statistics which is aimed at improving the quality of agricultural statistics nationwide.
The statement said the market and household survey was being supported technically by the 50×2030 Initiative Team, a multi-agency partnership between the World Bank (WB), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The 50 x 2030 Initiative is a 10-year, $500 million multi-agency partnership that seeks to bridge the agricultural data gap by transforming data systems in 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America by 2030.
It is implemented through a unique partnership between the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The initiative works directly with partner countries to promote data-smart agriculture to address food crises, and climate vulnerabilities, improve rural livelihoods, create jobs and build resilience.
Ghana’s partnership with 50 x 2030 has been developed in line with the objectives of its National Medium Term Development Policy Framework 2022-2025 to modernise and enhance agricultural production systems, improve post-harvest management and strengthen production and utilisation of statistics.