Page 276 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS243 Arbab A. K

Strategic Planning for Agriculture and Rural
Statistics (SPARS) and its impact at country level
Arbab Asfandiyar Khan , Hem Raj Regmi
2
1
1 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy
2 CBS Nepal and International Consultant at FAO, Kathmandu, Nepal

Abstract
Evidence based planning, monitoring and decision making are the key for the
success of national development process. It is more evident in those countries
where majority of the population are engaged in agriculture and live in rural
areas. Considering the low profile of the agriculture statistics in many
developing countries of Africa, Asia and Americas; UNFAO in collaboration
with UNSD, UNSIAP, ADB, AfDB and many other development partners
implemented the project named Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and
Rural Statistics (GSARS) in more than 70 countries of the world and about 19
countries in Asia Pacific region.
One of the basic but most important outcome of the Global Strategy project
is the Strategic Plans for Agricultural and Rural Statistics (SPARS), which is
based on the In depth country assessments (IdCA) of the project implementing
countries and focuses on the immediate to long term activities for the proper
development of agriculture statistical systems. SPARS include agriculture
statistical system in broader sense (i.e. crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry
sectors) of the agriculture statistics and identifies the vision, mission, goal,
objectives and major prioritized and actionable activities to overhaul the
system and better coordinate it across the National Statistical System. It also
focuses on the financial strategy with proper monitoring and evaluation plan
for its implementation.
Some significant impact has been observed during the implementation phase
of the GSARS in the Asia Pacific region. Few examples include the
establishment of Ministry of Statistics in Pakistan, establishment and
expansion of Agriculture statistics division at ministry of agriculture and
forestry in Bhutan, joint (ministry and NSO) crop production estimation system
established in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia amongst others. This paper
illustrates the major impacts achieved by the SPARS implementing countries
based on the country reports and communication material i.e. newsletters
published by GSARS project..

Keywords
Agricultural statistics; Statistical Plan; Agricultural Statistics strategy

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